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10-31-2007-03

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10-31-2007-02

Happy Halloween!  Let's talk issues, not assassinate character.  By Bill Toedter.

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10-31-2007-01

Dear Citizens of Iron Mountain:

One of your former city employees asked if I would care to share my most recent experience with Iron Mountain and any suggestions I may have.  Briefly:

I am from the area and familiar with the city, so I was willing to consider the prospect of a small manufacturing facility there.  Another technological entrepreneur, who was far more seriously considering the settlement of his business in Iron Mountain, suggested the idea to me in 2004.  Investing in small and deteriorating American cities, under the correct circumstances, often can be a very good value if a business can get in cheaply and, with others doing the same, pursue a thoroughgoing civic renaissance.  This can also benefit the city immeasurably, reversing its fortunes.  I was interested in opening a plant for the manufacture of our line of cards and cartridges and their complimentary software for use in desktops, laptops, minis, handhelds and other Internet-connective items by manufacturers of all types.

After completing our initial research on Iron Mountain, I found the city’s long initial unresponsiveness unforgivable.  I had stopped trying to contact the city when it contacted me, excusing itself and explaining a communications foul-up by employees.  I decided that, having gone that far to explore Iron Mountain’s feasibility, and having made no commitment elsewhere, I would give it another try.

Again unresponsiveness became common from every office.  Even after the city and I had established a tenuous connection, I found the city bureaucracy’s red tape impenetrable, its delays maddening, its conduct unprofessional.  One incident that particularly angered me is that confidential information I shared with leading city officials for purposes of planning and projecting became public knowledge within hours.  Another is that officials were claiming that they were not receiving materials and correspondence that I was mailing to them at City Hall, but only that material mailed to City Hall.

My attempts to communicate and deal with Iron Mountain were between autumn of 2005 and spring of 2006.

My new north central plant will open in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in April of 2008.

Suggestions?  Vote into office state and municipal governments that are savvy and knowledgable, contemporary and broad-visioned, quick on their feet, have a track record of competence and accomplishment, are professional, and are not only accountable but openly willing to be accountable.  Avoid wannabes.  Avoid parochial, politicized, and pretentious governments such as the one I encountered in Iron Mountain.  Even a small-town rural government today must have a global outlook if the town is to survive, much less thrive, in today and tomorrow’s world economy.  Not simply a declared global outlook, but an actual, demonstrable one.  In a variety of ways it may cost you more to get such talented and responsible people, but they will cost you a great deal less than if you don’t get them.

Sincerely yours,

Laurie Badini-Larson
Austin, Texas

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10-30-2007-07

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10-30-2007-06

Bill Toedter openly takes offense, responding to and directly disputing Eden Caudell's accusations and affront.

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10-30-2007-05

From Bruce J. Rosen, some important positions and pre-election reminders

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10-30-2007-04

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10-30-2007-03

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10-30-2007-02

Greetings, Iron Mountain!

For over 60 years I have been going to our camp near there.  First I went with my mom and dad and brothers and sisters, then with friends, and then at every opportunity I had for the past 36 years with my own family.  I have many wonderful friends in and around Iron Mountain and the U.P. and many fond, rich memories of the area.

I worked for NOAA and NASA my whole life and finally retired in 2004.  My wife and I decided that within a couple of years we would sell our home down here, upgrade the camp, and move there year-round.  I am also in the middle of starting a retirement business of RFID, more for my son and grandchildren, ultimately, than for me.  This business will manufacture, store, and distribute specialized RFID-tagged medical equipment.  RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) devices are a newly important and growing niche in technology.  I invite you to investigate our work with them on the web and in other media.  The startup money is in place, and once we are up and running we will immediately employ about 175 persons at an average annual salary of about $49,000.

Initially Iron Mountain interested me because of the availability of good cheap property, its airport and air services, its highways and shippers, basic available services necessary to us, other business and demographic factors, a couple of networking technology individuals I would like at my elbow, its location near our camp/home, and its sentimental value to our family.  The quality, reliability, and even the continued availability of some of these things have become dubious, however, the last two or three years.

I understand in the current election campaign for city council seats, the current council members who are running for reelection are bragging that Iron Mountain is business friendly.  Well, that seems an outright political campaign lie to me.  I recommend that you investigate this very carefully.  If there are more than a handful of businesses, new or already there, who find Iron Mountain business friendly, I would surely appreciate a list of them.  Maybe they have a list of secrets how to work with the city effectively, move forward even one step in more than super-slow motion, and get anything accomplished.  Or how to communicate with the city at all.  Not one of the city's current or prospective businesses I've spoken with over the last 11 months had a kind thing to say about working with the current city government.  While for most it seemed a matter of incompetence, others gave me the impression that it was like trying to deal with the Mafia.

My experience over the past year has been a nightmare full of nothing but recurring frustration, anger, and grief.  I could not contact anyone.  No one replied.  When someone finally did, they directed me elsewhere.  That party then directed me somewhere else.  And so on.  It was as if each person I spoke with couldn't find his own rear end with both hands.  And even if he did, he was determined that the buck was not going to stop at him.  Eventually someone directed me back to the original party.  Who would not see me, would not talk to me, cancelled meetings, failed to show up for them, or procrastinated.  Repeatedly.  Between meetings with individuals, those individuals would not do their homework regarding my bona fides or the subject matter and I would have to start all over again.  They apparently kept no records and would not remember me from time to time.  It got ridiculous when Iron Mountain bureaucrats for Iron Mountain city business directed me once to Kingsford, once to animal control, and once to Dickinson County.  Funny, but really not very funny.

When I did meet or correspond with anyone, they set up obstruction after obstruction, delay after delay, and could never answer any questions.  I do not mind saying that the city manager was beyond useless.  He could never say simply yes or no.  Incredibly, he actually seemed to want to toy with me.  When I could get him to respond, he hadn't the slightest clue what I talking about, then he spoke officiously and bewilderingly about subjects that had nothing to do with the business at hand, as if he were on the phone with someone else while I just sat and overheard the conversation.  The mayor rudely told me to go through the proper channels (ignoring that I had just told him that that's what I had spent months trying to do) and to come up and attend a meeting if I had anything to say and wanted to find out what was going on.  Apparently he was more clueless, unhearing, and uncaring than the city manager.  (Our background checks of these individuals surely were not very encouraging.)  When I did eventually attend a meeting, I wondered how a person introduces the nitty-gritty of a business to a city in a meeting of that nature.  There is no give-and-take.  It doesn't accommodate the down-to-business business of doing business with a city.  Every city official I spoke with was in way over his head, most were condescending, discourteous, and ratherly meanly defensive, none had answers, and each self-importantly acted as if he knew in detail what I was speaking about (until, suspicious, I tested them with a question and they were lost).  I marveled over their constant arrogance and air of superiority, including that of the clerk, a youngster who behaved as if he were a supercilious ancient Islamic philospher.  After saying they would get back to me, they seldom did.  Some never did.  The initiative was all mine and the city government repelled it every step of the way.  Eventually I had had enough and said nuts to this.

I am still moving up there, however, and still opening my factory and warehouse.  Sooner rather than later.  No offense to Kingsford, Norway, Breitung Township, and other Michiganders around Iron Mountain, but I'm going to set up shop in Niagara or Marquette.  When I approached them, they jumped.  And gave me assurances, to boot.  The weather will forbid it of course, but I could have been building already within 30 days of first contacting them.  (I first contacted Iron Mountain a year ago next month, originally hoping to break ground last spring.)  Escanaba was very receptive and cooperative, too, but is a bit far from home.  Iron Mountain, which at first appeared to be a natural selection -- and no doubt could be if properly organized and managed -- is the pits.  Sorry.  Hope you can get some decent people in charge and turn things around.  You deserve it.  It does not matter what the current city council members and candidates are telling you, Iron Mountain.  Follow the facts instead of their political baloney.  Frankly, your current government must be all hot air, ignorance, and photo ops because as far as actually governing, it does not appear to know which end is up.  It's no wonder entrepreneurs and new businesses are bypassing Iron Mountain.  Your current city government is in effect forcing them to, repelling business rather than attracting it, and as a result Iron Mountain's economy is stagnating, preventing real and significant growth in big-money private investment and contemporary jobs, the types of investment and jobs you want nowadays.  And must secure when you can!

Still, I extend my continued best wishes to you, Iron Mountain, and hope you can right your ship soon.  You are a great town apparently just going through a rough patch.  See you again soon.

Tom Feiereisen
Milwaukee

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10-30-2007-01

Wouldn't you support and campaign for your friends, family and those who are doing things to help your business if they were running for office?  The notion that these businesses and people are being sneaky by campaigning for people that they are either related to or support the same issues as they do is just silly.

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10-29-2007-08

Expediting Safe, Smart, and Profitable Business Ventures and Development in Iron Mountain.  By Bill Toedter.

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10-29-2007-07

The Decline and Fall of the U.S.A.
 
Our democracy is broken, from Washington thru Lansing to Iron Mountain.  How does a great nation decline and fall?  You let it.
 
That's what the citizens of the U.S. are doing.  We're apathetic.  We're complacent.  We're lazy.  We're not participating.  Our leaders are pathetic.  We either do nothing to choose them or choose them carelessly, without any thought.  Then we let them get away with murder.
 
We're no different in Iron Mountain.  I am personally involved in two recent mini-catastrophes in our immediate area that never should have happened and are symptomatic of how we're just allowing things to fall apart.  Many if not most of you will probably recognize me as I write, but so be it.
 
The first is the IME offer to Iron Mountain in 2005.  (#10-25-2007-03 this page).  I worked for one of only two local businesses (other than IME) privileged to be in that consortium.  I did not know that such idiotic and maladroit behavior was possible by a city government in our day and age.  Live and learn, huh?  There is no way in the world that the word leader applies to any member of this city's government at least since September 2005 and how they fumbled the ball thru incompetence and blindness and laziness and complacency.
 
A couple points about that whole episode since Mr. Hogan's letter to the editor came out.  People have been asking primarily a couple questions.
 
First.  We recommend that you get information from the city thru the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) instead of from us because it proves that the city in fact received and archived that information.  If they didn't deep-six it.  We could publish that information online of course, but there's no way you would know that we didn't just put that information on a website yesterday.  Other than the immutable time-and-date-stamped digital original (impossible to gather around a single computer and show to everyone), copies from the city or original recipients are the most practical and believable source of proof.
 
Second.  People ask why we did not go to a city council meeting when the city did not respond.  In fact, we did.  Two of them.  They were crowded too!  The major subject at one was the blight ordinance, at the other the rental ordinance.  But we attended each in the hope that an opportunity might arise.  One did not.  Three things constrained us.  1.) A presentation would be limited to 5 minutes.  2.) The council members and city manager would not respond, and most of what we had at that point were questions for them.  3.) TV6, the radio stations, and the newspaper were there, as was a large number of the public.  Would it have been responsible to tantalize the public of the U.P. for 5 minutes with the briefest of summaries of what might or might not happen?  Those city council meetings are no way to do business and everybody knows it, including the city manager and the city council, which is why they set their meeting format up that way.  They would not acknowledge us outside a meeting, and it is impossible to do business in a meeting.  They have that rigged exactly the way they want it.
 
If it's any consolation, Iron Mountain, our city is not the only jurisdiction in the neighborhood being "led" by a bunch of incompetent, corrupt, stupid, and/or irresponsible boneheads, special interests, and control freaks.  I sit on the board of a recently established charitable foundation that specializes in studying, assisting, and improving American public education.  For the first half of 2007, we attempted to set up a participating project and  endowment of $40 million for a school district in, let's say, the greater south-central U.P.  It was to be one of three districts in a 5-year comparative study in the Midwest.  $30 million principal in an endowment set up between 2009 and 2016 for this district, and a $10 million good-faith/goodwill grant to the school district's general fund right off the bat this past summer for instructional, operational, and infrastructural expenses.  The superintendent, in touch with our chairman, was going to check with whoever he checks with as well as his board's committees from February thru June and let us know by our June 15 deadline if at least they were interested and wanted to learn more and/or pursue setting things up.  In fact, our foundation chairman, a person you also know from Iron Mountain, went to the school board meeting just prior to June 15 with a fancy letter of presentation and a check for $10 million dollars.  Presumptuous, yes, but who doesn't accept $40 million dollars?  Well, this school district actually.  In fact, the subject of the endowment was never brought up.  Not at that meeting, by June 15, or in the 60-day grace period following.  The endowment and grant has since gone to a similar district down the road from our neck of the woods.  But tell me: what boneheads walk away from $40 million, or even the opportunity to sit down and discuss getting it?  Especially in this day and age, when money is tighter than it has ever been?  And what does it hurt to talk?  The foundation chair is a lot kinder than me about dealing with the aftermath of this.

Voters of the area, you better wise up and start electing responsible councils and boards who will hire competent managers, supervisors, and superintendents.  And you had better start holding them all accountable all the time.  You are letting things go down the tubes without even realizing it, and unless you wise up and stop it soon, it will be too late and your city, your state, and your country will have slipped away.  Simply because you let it.

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10-29-2007-06

Do they just not do their homework, or do they do this kind of thing on purpose and figure they'll get away with it?  It happens so often.  And it's damning in either case.
 
CLAIM:
 
In the past 4 years [2003-2007], Iron Mountain has received more than 4 million dollars in grants.  In the previous 4 years [1999-2003], it received virtually none.
 
Source: 2007 campaign flyer for Sally Jacobs, Doug Rigoni, Ken Tousignant, Jeff VanLaanen
 
FACT:
 
In the past four years [2003-2007], Iron Mountain has received 3.5 million dollars in grants.  In the previous 4 years [1999-2003], Iron Mountain received 4 million dollars in grants.
 
Source: City of Iron Mountain Vendor Reports, 1999-2007

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10-29-2007-05

¡Ay, caramba!  It's true!  They're real!  They live!

I discovered something really interesting this weekend.  Do you know that there are more than a handful of wildly angry supporters for the incumbents out there who at this very moment believe that the challengers for city council are trying to discredit the incumbents by having created a fictional person and business to use as a tool against the incumbents and their city manager?  Here we go again!  Shades of Dougie and his blog.

I'm referring to what on this website is submission 10-25-2007-03.  Jim Hogan and IME Corporation are quite real.  They exist.  You irate "Fake!" screamers should check with your pals before getting all hot and bothered.  Half of them probably know Hogan or know of him, and half of that number have probably been involved on one project or another with him since the '70s.  You know, not everyone in Iron Mountain lives or cares to live in front of a TV camera, radio microphone, or newspaper photographer.  Hogan is a guy who, if or when he comes to the party, shows up with a folder of proof under this arm.  I suspect what some people are really worried about is that in his online and Daily News article he is directing them to yet another smoking gun, one that will further incriminate Iron Mountain's current council and management.  I refer to him directing the curious, caring, and skeptical to request from the city itself, via the Freedom of Information Act, his supporting business correspondence and service lists of December 6, 2005; December 16, 2005; January 10, 2006; and any other relevant correspondence citizens choose to get from the city about this episode.  I'm sure this is why the incumbents' website has never published the remarks Hogan submitted to it, although the Public Forum and Daily News have.  He can always direct people to evidence to support him.  The previous issue, for example, was when the mayor's domestic partner on the incumbents' website gratuitously attacked, misrepresented, and smeared Hogan, and Hogan responded to the two websites and the newspaper in defense of the Schools Public Liaison Officer Program but against the illegal use of the cable-TV fee -- Item 9-17-2007-01 in the Public Forum and at this Daily News link.  The incumbents' website chose not to publish a copy.  It appears they got their lick in and weren't interested in hearing or providing the whole story.  Incidentally, why didn't they protest his existence then?

Jim Hogan and IME have lived in Iron Mountain for over 28 years.  An educator, tech writer, and translator for years, professionally he has focused on providing online services since the late '80s.  His wife is an accomplished musician, decades long performer, and public-schools teacher in the community.  For decades he was prominently involved in the community's fine-arts scene, especially the performing arts, to a large extent in theatre and mostly in music.  He was the founder and, for years, the director of the Peninsula Singers.  Since the early '80s he has created, produced, directed, participated in, underwritten, and presented countless local shows and concerts.  In conjunction with IME, throughout the '90s he sent first-class charters with top-drawer tickets from our community -- all free or at break-even costs -- to Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, and points beyond so local students, performers, and appreciators had opportunities to attend world-class professional resident and touring operas, musicals, ballets, modern dance performances, festivals, and big-name concerts of all types.  An activist, if a low-profile and silent one, he continues to openly support the arts as well as charities and social and health causes, in town and out.  He simply doesn't splash it all over the media and in extra-large bold print in program notes and every local playbill.  He doesn't need attention and public praise for attention and public praise's sake.  But he surely exists.  Visibility just isn't a principal concern of his.  I believe that the only ones he cares know about his vocational and avvocational activities are the ones that have to get it done and, sappy as it sounds, God.  The fellow has a deep and abiding faith.  But unless you try to exploit him and others for cheap political or personal gain, whether or not you know that he exists is of no importance to him.

Ecce homo! Behold the man!  He exists.

IME Corporation exists too, by the way.  I don't know why people don't do their homework.  Search IME Corporation at Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN -- the main search engines.  Its shortcut directory division's global homepage (Here!) always turns up as one of the top couple returns.  From that page most of IME's myriad sites and services unfold, including links to The Human Relief Fund (which you can also Google independently), Helping Others (its current clearinghouses), and even the handy and utilitarian Iron Mountain area shortcut directory at IMEplace, one of the local civic directories, donated for the Dickinson County area's use, including free listings for all of the area's commercial and noncommercial enterprises and entities -- this, via the name IMEplace.com, is how IME is known at the local Chamber.  Through IME's hosting and email companies, it also has a considerable number of private and nonprofit local clients.  Some of whom you skeptics can easily Google-search yourself for verification of existence.  A varied sampling: First Presbyterian Church of Iron Mountain Kingsford, Dickinson County Community Chorus, The Caring House, Dickinson County Community Theater, Spreen Aviation, Kingsford Music, NMDA Kingsford, Watercolors by Suzanne Fraker, Iron Mountain Kingsford Soup Kitchen, et al., dozens, most of which are provided either free, at cost, or inexpensively, depending on their purpose.  It has thousands -- tens of thousands! -- of domains and URLs (web addresses), depending on geographic location and the service(s) involved, but its most common ones worldwide are http://www.imeplace.com , http://www.imeplace.org , http://www.imeplace.net , http://www.shortcutdirectory.com , http://www.shortcutdirectory.org , and http://www.shortcutdirectory.net .

So.  This man and this company exist.  Imagine that.  You can find them yourself independently and easily.  If you bother.  Something is seriously out of kilter when this city-hall in-crowd, jumpy as a cat, starts strongly, wrongly, and at the drop of a hat making accusations against the challengers for an identity issue that a wing of this incumbent bunch created out of raging ignorance and thin air.  What's going on here anyhow?  Why are these incumbents and their clique of supporters behaving so stridently, so desperately, and so personally?  Even irrationally, as someone else mentioned.  Do they have something to lose?  Do they have something to hide?  They strike out so startlingly, as if they're scared to death of something.  What the heck is at stake here for them that the challengers and the rest of us don't know about?

Jerrold Roedesch

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10-29-2007-04

Sigh.  I'm mortified that I voted for five of the seven current Iron Mountain City Council members.  For four years for four of them and two years for one, I've sat back and sourly observed the behavior of this council, the manager it hired, and its staff.  I've watched the city generally come undone as a result of their governance, deteriorating as the government tried to use the city itself for its officials' personal benefit, and as it tried to counter reality by creating a P.R. and publicity machine that could at least claim all was going well and throw up the facades of a Potemkin's village.

Continue progress?  What progress?  We've entered an accelerating spiral, folks, and the direction is backwards and down.

Week after week, month after month, I've watched elected and hired city officials and their dwindling but adamant supporters deny the undeniable time and time again.  Then a couple of minutes ago it dawned on me: Iron Mountain's City Council and management would rather be wrong their way than right anybody else's way.  

It's inescapable.  Iron Mountain's City Council and management would rather be wrong their way than right anybody else's way.

That's no good, folks.  That's when it's time for a major change.  We have to do better than this.  We should at least give four of the five new candidates a shot.  I can't imagine how they can do any worse.  And, with God's grace and great good luck, maybe they'll put a new and effective management team in place too.

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10-29-2007-03

Single-Issue, My Foot!

Why are Virginia Feleppa and other militant incumbent supporters rushing around town, collaring folks, and shrilly claiming that the challengers are one-issue candidates?  That claim is absolute nonsense.  Are these people just swallowing the pap the incumbents give them without any investigation and critical thought?

Issue Number  1:  Assessment Issue

Issue Number  2:  Cable-TV Fees

Issue Number  3:  Economic Development

Issue Number  4:  Fire & Police Protection

Issue Number  5:  Health Costs

Issue Number  6:  Legal Issues

Issue Number  7:  Rental Ordinance

Issue Number  8:  Sewer Rates

Issue Number  9:  Streets & Alleys

Issue Number 10:  Water Rates

These are the issues on which the challengers are largely in agreement.  Want positions on more issues from the candidates individually?  Here are their weblogs.

Toedter  |  Rosen   |  Peterson  |  Farragh  |  Alessandrini

Single-issue candidates, my foot!  How would the incumbents feel if they were accused of being single-issue candidates -- say, for example, focusing only on the issue of self?

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10-29-2007-02

Plain and Simple

Overwhelmingly, the vast majority of landlords in Iron Mountain are in favor of either the IPMC (International Property Maintenance Code) or a fair version of a rental ordinance.  They are also for being registered with the city.  Yes, you read those sentences correctly.  The IPMC is clear, concise, adopted nationally, covers all entities for safety -- renters and homeowners -- and is known to be successful.

The city-council incumbents would have you think otherwise for political reasons.  It's an old political trick.  If the incumbents choose an economic, social, or cultural group and demonize its members among the general public, they think they'll look good by comparison.  In this case, they demonize the landlords (and firemen, and other select groups) and feel they look good by comparison to them -- and that you'll vote for them and they'll retain their power!  These are just sensationalist tricks to distract the voter from what the incumbents are doing behind the scenes, about which they don't want the public to know, or the stuff they're not doing for the city at all -- but should be!  It's a political trick as old as Creation, and the landlords just happen to be one of the politicians' victims this time.

What the incumbent candidates don't tell you is that Iron Mountain already has the IPMC on the books, nor do they tell you why they're not enforcing it properly -- behavior that would protect everyone in town, not only renters.  Instead of enforcing the code, they choose a scapegoat on which they can blame everything that's going wrong and not being accomplished on their watch.

Let's just elect somebody who's gonna enforce the Code and do the other accomplishing and forgo all this unnecessary political baloney of recent years, please.  Thank you.

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10-29-2007-01

Growing, Developing, and Improving the Entire City.  Realistically and Fairly.  By Tina Peterson.

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10-28-2007-14

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10-28-2007-13

Post 10-28-2007-04 says James Hogan's letter is calculating because it was posted recently in the midst of the campaign.
 
If I had made the same offer he did to the city and got the run around he did, you can be damned sure I would have written about it at a time when it would best emphasize the kinds of people and city manager we have and hopefully have the most impact.
 
You have a problem with that?  If so, what is it.

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10-28-2007-12

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10-28-2007-11

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10-28-2007-10

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10-28-2007-09

In response to 10-28-2007-04:

James M. Hogan's letter-to-the-editor post at 10-25-2007-03 does not seem calculating.  It is calculating.  I'd bet on it, and I'd bet that, if asked, Jim Hogan would be the first to say so, too.  Use your head.  The election is next week.  The man is clearly explaining why next week he is voting for different candidates than he voted for in 2003.  And understandably so!  Don't turn a clear, simple explanation into a dark, complicated conspiracy.  And before you submit something publicly, have the courtesy and respect to re-read what you write, edit it, and spell at least a person's name correctly.

Emma Lynn and Bill Madison

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10-28-2007-08

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10-28-2007-06

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10-28-2007-05

All in the Family

If you're paying attention, you'll notice something interesting about all the council members and business owners and businesses who have these little ads in the paper lately for VanLaanen, Rigoni, Jacobs and Tousignant (write in).

They're all in bed together.  Literally or figuratively.  They're all related either by blood or by business.  Some by both.  One way or another, it's all one big happy family.

Stephens Realty runs an incumbent-supportive ad and is the agency representing city real estate.  Maddy Tousignant owns Stephens.  Surprise!  That's Mayor Ken Tousignant's mom.  The mayor himself is the office manager for Stephens.

Dr. and Kris Leonard run one of those ads also.  Well!  Kris Leonard works for Stephens.  She's a realtor there.

Liz Douglas runs an ad, but it turns out she stands to gain from the incumbents by getting a new parking lot and alley behind her beauty shop.

Carey Contracting runs an ad and promotes the incumbent ad program itself, but Mike and his wife Colleen, with her Servicemaster business, stand to profit handsomely if they land building and cleaning contracts for the Blomquist stripmall, the Champion Building renovation, and other incumbent-pushed projects throughout town.  That's some pretty snazzy elbow-rubbing.

Bacco of course is obvious by now, or should be.  Councilman Rigoni runs Bacco.  Plenty of city money going into those coffers.

Moose-Jackson runs one of those ads.  Councilwoman Eden Caudell owns Moose-Jackson.  So much for any objectivity there.

Dave Brule is the only TIFA board member who voted to fund the new parking lot and alley behind city hall and beauty shop and Moose-Jackson.  Of course, his business in the industrial park got a free new parking lot from the incumbents last year.  Tit for tat, I guess.

Dee Benjamin, a sister of Liz Douglas, runs one of those ads too.  Her husband is Gary Benjamin.  He's the head honcho of Gundlach-Champion, the company that got the fat city grant and physical infrastructure assistance from city hall last year.

Another sister of Liz Douglas and Dee Benjamin is Kathy Curran.  Who is married to John Curran of Morgan Stanley.  Through Morgan Stanley, John Curran invests Iron Mountain's police and fire personnel's pension money.  According to the city's vendors' reports, over $75,250 in 2006 and more than $61,000 so far in 2007.  They must make a nice piece of change from that.

Very cozy, all this.

Folks, government is in the business of governing, not being a commercial business partner.  It must concern itself with the welfare of all of the citizens in its jurisdiction, not just a privileged few who attempt to manipulate and milk the system for their own profit.

Ladies and gentlemen of Iron Mountain, I submit that local government should provide the opportunity for local businesses to survive and prosper.  Under thinly veiled efforts at disguise, it should not provide corporate welfare -- large sums of money itself -- directly to businesses who game the city's political system for their own benefit.

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10-28-2007-04

Considering the date and common council campaign , James M. Hoagns letter to the editor post at 10-25-2007-03 seems pretty calculatiing.

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10-28-2007-03

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10-28-2007-02

The very, very cheap shot by Ann Markell has had the exact opposite effect of her intentions.     
 
It brought to light the many activities and accomplishments Dale Alessandrini has performed for the benefit of the Iron Mountain community.  The excellent post by Bill Revord highlighted many of them.  See Post # 10-27-2007-14.
 
Dale did not seek praise or headlines.  He was approached by various groups ranging from the Iron Mountain School Board, Vision 2020, the Neighborhood Partnership, working with Bill Revord in his role as Community Chair of the Elks Club in welcoming the troops home, helping with Hog Wild and many other activities too numerous to mention.
 
The brand new boiler donated to the Iron Mountain School district was installed and never used in the Newburg Clinic when that building was temporarily saved in anticipation of selling it.  It is worth many thousands of dollars in cost savings to the school district.
 
OK, Ann Markell - why don't you post your contributions to the community and let's see how you stack up against Dale Alessandrini.
 
To the City Council and City Manager John Marquart: You have shamelessly tried to take credit for projects and accomplishments where you had very little or nothing to do with them.  So you got some kind of a grant for the northside ball field. But without the labor of many volunteers from that area who did backbreaking work along with the heroic efforts of the Michigan Laborer's Training Council which Mr. Alessandrini heads, it would never have succeeded. 
 
Yes, Mr. Marquart, we remember.  We remember when the volunteers asked the DPW for an hour or two use of the city grader and operator to spread the free topsoil WE Energies had donated and you showed up ranting and raving because the request had not gone to you directly.  You sure showed your maniacal control-freak colors that day.
 
And you, Mayor Tousignant, are always available for photo-ops, but I didn't see you out there busting your butt along with the volunteers.  Beneath your dignity, I guess.
 
In their flyer, the incumbents try to take credit for all the sidewalk work that has been done the past two summers when they had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do or say about it. It was entirely a TIFA project, with no input needed or wanted from the city council. It was part of TIFA's long range plan years before any of the incumbents or the city manager were around.
 
The thought of Marquart, Tousignant or ANY of the other smearing, devious, lying and rumor-mongering incumbents being around for the next for years is enough to make me want to heave.

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10-28-2007-01

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10-27-2007-17

Tina:
 
I do appreciate and thank you for you answers to my questions about the "Plan".  We could go back and fourth all day long.  Just like when you brought up the 9 police officers in the city of Houghton after I mentioned the 4 firefighters.  You did not take into account the police officers that work for Michigan Technological University, last I knew there were 5.  If you add them up that makes the number the same as the number of police officers in Iron Mountain. 
 
One question that you have not answered is where the "plan" came from?  The fact is that I believe (know) that it came directly from the current full time firefighters.  Now they want to hire part time firefighters.  This is quite the change from a couple of years ago when they were totally against this.  Is it possible that they have fed this "plan" to the challengers in attempt to preserve the remaining full time positions?
 
I ask again where did this "Plan" come from??
 
I have concerns with anyone who would SIGN THEIR NAMES to a "plan" that is so far from the norm of other cities the size of Iron Mountain.
 
I am done after this correspondence as I do not think that it is productive in this type forum.  Tina I do again thank you as you were the only one of the challengers that responded to my questions.  I have one vote left and it may go to you. :)

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10-27-2007-16

Please read post 10-27-2007-14

This post reflects the true Mr. Alessandrini and all the hard work he has given to this community.  Dale is a person of action to back up his words.  There are not many that can claim to be able to do this.

Thanks Dale.

Dean Lefebvre

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10-27-2007-15

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10-27-2007-14

Thank you Dale for all the years of help you have given me and others on important community projects. And thanks to your men and women from the training school as well.
 
Thank you for your time, expertise, advice and suggestions on issues that affect our neighborhoods. In large part it has been because of service such as yours that progress has been made.
 
Thank you for being a part of the efforts made in this community by our Elks Lodge. We value your company and the important contributions you have made to this organization and specifically your help to me as the Community Activities Chair. Your efforts have made a positive difference.
 
Thank you and your crew for all your organization and physical efforts on behalf of the folks on our Northside and all the kids that will use the ball field and playground . Without your commitment to this project it simply would not have gotten done without the expenditure of dollars the NPPDC nor Vision 20-20 just didn't have.
 
Thank you for hanging with me time and again to complete the sidewalk pours on our West and east sides.
 
Thank you for all of your efforts on behalf of our County Airport and the concrete walk around the plane.
 
Thank you for your help in our efforts in this community to welcome home our troops. We know we can depend upon you for help to get the big jobs done.
 
Thank you for your time and efforts getting our mega grill moved and ready for the yearly HOG WILD celebration cook off. Your efforts save many tired backs.
 
Thank you and your crew for your help to our schools and the sidewalks that have been built or replaced there. Your leadership at the Training school has made it possible for your School District to save valuable dollars for kids that would otherwise have to be spent on labor. As a single member of the Board of Education, I greatly appreciate this. Between You and Bacco Construction and our departed friend Ernie Zambon many good things have come to this District over the years.   
 
Thank you and your family for your generous donation of a Brand New Boiler to our School District. as a member of the Building and Grounds Committee of this District I can't tell you how much I appreciate this.
 
And thank you and and your family for being good friends to so many in this community, especially Pam and I and our children.  We Value your friendship, your leadership, and your honesty.
 
There may have been a day in years gone by when you may not have had the wealth of dollars in your pocket. I too have been there. But in my family's opinion you have something much more valuable, you have the love of your family and respect of many in your community and in my book that makes your one of the wealthiest men I know.
 
Thanks Dale for all of your contributions over the years. All done from the heart, all done quietly and without fanfare.
 
Sincerely,
 
Bill and Pam Revord and family
Iron Mountain

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10-27-2007-13

 

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10-27-2007-12

Mr. Hogan, with regrets, great punchline to your posting 10-25-2007-03.  The City Manager was paying closer attention than you gave him credit for.  I saw your formal correspondence from Day One.  Immediately after the City ignored your 2005-06 tech donations, proposals, and requests for a meeting, John Marquart went to the TIFA Board and palmed off your idea for the Wi-Fi (wireless) umbrella/hotspot over Iron Mountain as his, asked TIFA for the money to pay for it, and asked Dean Carollo and Computer Connections if they'd do the tech work and give the city a kickback -- I mean a fee -- on the amount that Computer Connections got for the business.  TIFA and Carollo would have nothing to do with it for legal, practical, and financial reasons, but you hafta give that scoundrel Marquart an A+ for sheer nerve, hey?  Swipes your idea, takes credit for it, and tries to turn it into a buck and make himself look like Mr. John Terrific Indispensable.  The guy is one primo _______ (fill in the blank).

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10-27-2007-11

I would like to know if anybody out there has different information and/or more information regarding the IMHS government students and the Iron Mountain city government between Friday October 12th and Monday October 15th. This is an issue about which I am very concerned and curious and which bothers me more as I talk to some of the players and as others of the players refuse to talk about it.

As I understand it at the moment, it was the school's teacher and administration as early as Friday October 12th, not the City Council, that cancelled the students' participation in the City Council's October 15th meeting. This was due to inquiries and/or complaints by northside residents, including parents, to the school that students were handing out political campaign literature for the Mayor and the City Council's 2007 incumbent candidates. They had been either requested or instructed to do this as part of their government-class assignment that day by, allegedly, northside ward Councilwoman Eden Caudell, City Manager John Marquart, and perhaps other city employees. And that, because of the illegality, which the kids were unaware of, the State Police are either being urged to investigate or are already investigating.

Contributors to this Web site obviously have a history of providing a lot of written official proof about the city's political and
governmental affairs. Can anybody out there authoritatively support or debunk this information about Friday October 12th or firm up what's true about it and what is not? Or point us toward whoever does know?

An Extremely Concerned Mother Looking for Facts

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10-27-2007-10

In early 2006 I had read a couple "underground" offer sheets and letters from the previous months from Mr. Hogan to the full range of city officials, asking for some kind of reply one way or another to his approaches. Yesterday I was reading Mr. Hogan's letter to the editor and that "irrationality" aspect of the absolutely and continuously silent city government jumped out at me. That seems a recurrent theme. The senselessness and almost spooky madness like the-aunt-in-the-attic insanity you sense sometimes from this council and its bureaucrats. I had a communication problem for months with those city people trying to talk to someone about a serious and expensive issue in our neighborhood. I know at least half a dozen who will tell you the same thing. No one would talk to me. It was nutty. And when they finally do, like the city manager, he says well he'll have to investigate, then you never hear from him again. And if you do finally talk with him again, he says the same thing and then never gets back to you! And big stuff too like when TIFA offers them a million and a half dollars for the water project, a project TIFA can actually legally contribute to, and the city people refuse!!! Huh? And then the city people turn around over and over and over again like a bunch of chewy gumheads and request money for stuff TIFA isn't permitted to contribute to!!! Huh? These people are in charge? What's the matter with these people? Irrational is as good a word as any. Dumb, crazy -- those words work too. And that doesn't even approach the related etiquette side of their behavior. You would think a company or consortium group contacts you with inquiries and info like Mr. Hogan describes about things those city guys and gals downtown are always clamoring for in the paper and on their radio programs, the city manager or mayor or clerk or an appropriate council committee chairperson or SOMEBODY down there would at least have it in him to jot out an email reply or take a single minute and pick up a phone and say "Drop dead, we're not interested." You know? It's not like there aren't four hundred thousand million phones and Internet connected computers in city hall. The correspondence I saw had phone numbers and addresses of all kinds to contact Mr. Hogan and his group. I mean, someone asks you a question, you answer it. That's what I want my city government to do. That's behavior that's rational and right. Ya gotta wonder what the heck other weird stuff is going on. Maybe next month we can start a thorough housecleaning down there and start getting things sane again.

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10-27-2007-09

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10-27-2007-08

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10-27-2007-07

Expertise is a wonderful thing.  Publicly witnessing an example of professional expertise is even more wonderful.  Read about  Our Water  by Dave Farragh.

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10-27-2007-05

Openness and responsive government mean public access -- and that means YOU.

Some of us have noticed that Iron Mountain's incumbent city-council candidates, their supporters, and city employees whose jobs depend on the reelection of these candidates are distancing themselves from the electorate and from the candidates challenging the incumbents.  They do this mainly by hiding behind their official access to the traditional media -- particularly the mayor and the city manager.  Although the city-council meeting cancelled so conveniently and coincidentally because of a lack of a quorum was also pretty fishy.  Engineering such one-sided formats, they can be once removed from the public and the challengers, not having to answer the public's questions or defend their mean, arrogant, and generally unconscionable personal attacks on the challengers.  They buffer themselves from anyone who might question them or protest so they can tell the broader public whatever they want, unchallenged, and not have to deal on the spot with any inconvenient truths.

Too bad they haven't spent as much time, effort, and money addressing the issues and trying to make the city run economically and effectively.

This combination of this growing distance from the public and the incumbents' inordinate unopenness to all of us is exactly one of the things the challengers are running against.  During this campaign, the challengers can't just phone the Daily News, TV6, or WJNR to publicly spout, without charge, whatever they want, whenever they want, and then return to their offices, homes, or clubs to hide out from any questions or rebuttals.  Therefore, if you'd care to ask the challengers questions or hear their side of things, including the defense of themselves and setting the record straight against unwarranted attacks of false information, or if you know anyone who does, please visit their individual websites, email them, or phone them.  They'll be happy to answer your questions, acknowledge your input, and discuss the issues of this campaign.

Dale Alessandrini  ...  Email  ...  906-774-6821

Dave Farragh  ...  Email  ...  906-774-8575

Tina Peterson  ...  Email  ...  906-776-1150

Bruce Rosen  ...  Email  ...  906-779-9089

Bill Toedter  ...  Email  ...  906-779-1347

Please vote for four of these five candidates on November 6.  Your vote matters.  It's as important as you are and can make the difference.  Don't be bullied, intimidated, scorned, and excluded.  Please: vote!  And encourage your friends and family members to do likewise.  Thank you.

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10-27-2007-04

FLUSHING THE HYDRANTS -
 
I understand a full flushing of the fire hydrants is supposed to start Monday.  This is just another instance where "the story broke" on this website after Dave Farragh presented it at a council meeting.
 
DPW employees had repeatedly mentioned it to DPW Director Becotte who had passed the word to City Manager Marquart.  Nothing happened for over two years.  Only when the story began circulating on this site and in The Daily News does the pressure build to DO SOMETHING.
 
FIRE TRUCK BLINKER - The faulty blinker light was on the third, unused, fire truck.  The fire department had been ordered by John Marquart not to spend a penny of that truck. The MIOSHA inspector caught it, issued a citation, and it was then fixed.  No fine was levied, citation was corrected and withdrawn.  
 
To gain political points, the incumbents, especially Rigoni, Tousignant and City Manager Marquart tried to spin this way out of proportion to avoid discussing the $23,000 in fines paid to MIOSHA for the far more serious issue of inadequate fire protection that  Marquart's screwed plan had failed to deliver.
 
Anyone looking just below the surface of Iron Mountain operations can see, here and now, the total incompetence of this council and manager in one issue after another.
 
It's unbelievable - totally unbelievable.

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10-27-2007-03

A heartfelt word from Tina Peterson

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10-27-2007-02

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10-27-2007-01

The sleaziest letter ever appeared in the Voice of the People column yesterday, asking for credit reports of all candidates.  Shame on you, Ann Markell.  You are now officially a part of the sleaze campaign.
 
Why didn't you mention the $100,000+ commission the Mayor's mother stood to gain in Ken Tousignant and Doug Rigoni's failed attempt to get the TIFA Board to buy the Khoury property at an outrageous price?  (See previous day letter by Ted Corombos, who has too much integrity to mention who had the listing and stoop to your level)
 
Credit ratings?  What would the credit ratings of the incumbents be is they had to stand on their own.  Not one of them has accomplished a DAMNED THING on their own. 
 
They've all been SPOON FED BY THEIR PARENTS OR SPOUSES  most or all of their lives.
 
They are the REAL LEECHES of society, ALL getting a free ride off the backs of others. 
 
When did any of them have a rough financial patch to struggle through.  NEVER. 
 
Let's look at the self-dealing, egocentric, elitist "NOBODIES"  who are currently serving and destroying Iron Mountain's reputation right before our eyes, instead of drudging up past history of one candidate who has managed to overcome past problems and move on.
 
Ann Markell has been sucked into the sewage campaign the incumbents have been running.  They have no ideas or positive and innovative solutions to problems they have created, so they sink into the only alternative left - character assassination.
 
They (and Ann Markell) represent the lowest form of smear campaigning.

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10-26-2007-21

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10-26-2007-20

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10-26-2007-19

That's really irritating and sad about the city completely ignoring those business approaches from the IME tech group [Item 10-25-2007-03].  I remember the buzz when that was happening.  You can really appreciate it if someone has ever snubbed you, simply ignoring you and pretending you don't exist or looking over your shoulder past you.  It's so darn maddening and frustrating -- not to mention just plain rude and uncivilized.
 
My husband and I were working the Christmas dinner at the Presbyterian Church on Christmas Day of 2005 and a number of Catholic friends from the north side at one table were passing around and discussing copies of a couple of the latest letters and service lists that the city officials were ignoring.  One of the women had also got the city manager's deceitful scam message from a woman on the phone who she said was very short with her and had pontificated over the phone as if she knew everything there was to know about Web sites and the Internet.
 
But the main point was that no one at the table could understand, and I can't understand to this day, why the city wouldn't at least acknowledge the contacts and meet with these technology people, check them out, see what they had to offer.  What I saw in writing looked very sensible and very attractive -- I pay over $40 a month for the Internet and that's not wireless and it's only at home at my desktop.  I would've loved free high speed wireless Internet!  I know Jim Hogan is legitimate, and I know IME is legitimate -- I've used its Iron Mountain IME place shortcut directory every day for 6 or 7 years.  And it seems to me the city officials would be familiar with banks the likes of Barclays, Wachovia, and Macquarie, and companies the likes of Oracle, Dell, Sun, Cisco, and Qualcomm.  I know Jim was very disappointed, and not just for the city.  He would've liked to have seen business headquarters close to home.
 
The city could have at least sat down, listened, thanked these people, and said no thank you, we're not interested, or that we already have something lined up.  Is Iron Mountain in such great shape that it can afford to completely ignore even the possibility of opportunities that come its way?  I've heard from other people though too that this city manager and council is like that.  Very self-absorbed, discourteous, and unresponsive.  Contacts regularly go unanswered.  But this seemed a little more important than a crumbling curb or a fallen fence or a neighbor burning stinky campfires in his backyard.

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10-26-2007-18

Is what Ann Markell did in Friday’s paper even legal? Can a creditor (even a past creditor) publicly identify and essentially harass someone who has had their debt cleared through a legal bankruptcy process? Without using a name, she clearly identified this person to anyone who knows who previously owned the old hospital property. The fact that a bankruptcy is public record does not allow a creditor to openly expose a person to public humiliation.

 

According to THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT, “a debt collector may not communicate, in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than a consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector.”

 

The debt having been discharged should not now permit such an act.

 

Creditor harassment is clearly illegal and certainly immoral. When a creditor is trying to collect a debt, they are not permitted to disclose that information to anyone other than the one owing the debt; so how can she publicly disclose it afterward? Obviously it doesn’t matter to her that this person was legally discharged from debt through bankruptcy.  To bring this out as she has stinks of harassment to me.

 

Never, in my wildest dreams, could I have imagined that a business person with any sense of community would use such an underhanded tactic against a political candidate. Perhaps another community member might try to expose such information to try to discredit someone; but not the actual creditor. Legal or not, I am appalled by such un-professionalism.

 

I am also appalled that The Daily News would print such a letter; knowing very well that it identifies this person through association with the mentioned property. What is happening to this city?

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10-26-2007-17

A Salute to Iron Mountain's Fire & Police Departments.  And a Resolve to Settle Our Differences.   By Dave Farragh.

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10-26-2007-16

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10-26-2007-15

The incumbents are stooping to a new low, trying to bring the challengers' personal lives and situations into the campaign.  If that's how they want to play, here's a suggestion:  how about mandatory drug testing for all?  Nothing to hide, right, incumbents?  
It's a small town.Remember the glass houses you're in.

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10-26-2007-14

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10-26-2007-13

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10-26-2007-12

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10-26-2007-11

I just cannot believe that any decent business person would stoop so low as to publicly announce that someone's bankruptcy involved them. My family has experienced bankruptcy. It's not an easy thing to do. It's a terribly embarrassing situation to have to face.

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10-26-2007-10

Every opportunity should at least be explored  by Bill Toedter.

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10-26-2007-09

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10-26-2007-08

Mr. Marquart and Mr. Tousignant ---- how do you explain the above contents from your model ordinance since it contradicts your own statement in the paper? Please explain to the community why you distorted and lied about this issue! 

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10-26-2007-07

I have read the challengers plan for the fire department and have "checked the facts" chum.  The problem is that I had to do some extra digging to find the "true facts".  On line it does not explain that with this "plan", the fire trained police officers WILL NOT be used anymore while on duty as firefighters.  They will not be responding as firefighters anymore.  This sounds like a waste of money that has already been spent to me.  They would be replaced with the part time firefighters at ten dollars an hour.  Why was this not explained???  If the police officers do not respond to fires it would save the city $40,500 per year.  I don't think that $40,500 is that much to pay to have nine fire trained police officers on staff for the year.  This money is what is going to be used to pay for some of the part time firefighters.  You are wrong, I DO NOT want anyone else to loose their jobs.  It would be nice if some of the firefighters would take up the city on the offer to go to the police academy.  Even if only three of the ten current firefighters would do this all of the problems would be solved.  Also in "checking facts", I found that the city of Houghton at this time has FOUR full time firefighters on staff augmented with twenty paid part time volunteers.  It shows that there are other ways to provide fire services.

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10-26-2007-06

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10-26-2007-05

I hope all of you read the very informative article Ted Corombos wrote in the Tuesday issue of The Daily News.  He packed more good info in one letter than I have ever seen in a Letter to the Editor.
 
Compare that letter to all of Marquart's lies and ramblings for the last four years and you get a sense of the importance of character and integrity. 
 
Mr. Corombos, in my mind and in the minds' of many, many others, has been the most dedicated elected and appointed official in the history of Iron Mountain.   He has done more for this city than most people can ever imagine. His TIFA vision alone has been worth millions of dollars and created thousands of jobs.   
 
His administration, when he was Mayor, was unblemished.  His investment talents had the Iron Mountain Police and Pension Plan fully funded by the time he turned it over to others, which means taxpayers at the time had to contribute practically nothing to it. 
 
He handled budgets carefully and prudently. He was always aware of the community he served and worked diligently at all times on behalf of the taxpayers.
 
All of this and a lot more was done matter-of-factly with no fanfare. A confident, competent man neither seeks nor needs adulation.
 
Mr. Corombos had been a true giant in our midst.  People such as he are very rare indeed.
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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10-26-2007-04

Regarding Mary Robitaille's article about the landlord issue Iron Mountain, it's just another case of connecting the dots.
 
John Marquart got a loan on the home he recently bought through Mary Robitaille's mortgage originating firm. .  He made no-down payment on the home. It is 100% financed.  Mary Robitaille obviously made a commission in processing this sub-prime mortgage. 
 
Mary Robitaille has had extensive dealings with Stephens GMAC Realty, the firm co-owned by
by Mayor Ken Tousignant's mother, Maddie.  I understand Mary worked there before starting her own firm.
 
How hard would it be to convince (maybe, sort of coerce) Mary Robitaille to write an article favoring Ken Tousignant and John Marquart's rental ordinance.
 
Mary Robitaille has never been to a city council meeting in her life. She is not an Iron Mountain resident. Connect the dots.

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10-26-2007-03

Response to 10-25-2007-08

At least the challengers has taken some time to step up to the plate and put together some  kind of a solution . If you were to read on you will see that they will not shove it down anyone's throat. Its looks like its just a starting point and will require feed back from both departments and citizen involved.

The current council shoves everything down our throats like it or not. I think that we will have a good and finally a honest council if the challengers prevail.

I have notice that the incumbents have not came out with any solutions to any of this city's problems. They keep handing out their little flyers that cuts on the challengers, but it doesn't give any information on what they propose to do with all the problems that we  have.

I  am impressed with the challengers and I will vote for them.

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10-26-2007-02

From the Iron Mountain Website.  You decide if these have been fulfilled.

The Council’s Function

The council is the legislative body; its members are the community’s decision makers. Power is centralized in the elected council, for example, they approve the budget and amend ordinances, etc. The council also focuses on the community’s goals, major projects, and such long-term considerations as community growth, land use development, capital improvement plans, capital financing, and strategic planning. The council hires a professional manager to carry out the administrative responsibilities and supervises the manager’s performance.

The Manager’s Function

The manager is hired to serve the council and the community and to bring to the local government the benefits of training and experience in administering local government projects and programs on behalf of the governing body. The manager prepares a budget for the council’s consideration; recruits, hires, and supervises the government’s staff; serves as the council’s chief adviser; and carries out the council’s policies. Council members and citizens count on the manager to provide complete and objective information, pros and cons of alternatives, and long-term consequences.

The Mayor's Function

Mayors in council-manager communities (or chairpersons in counties) are key political leaders and policy developers. In the case of the council, the mayor is responsible for soliciting citizen views in forming these policies and interpreting them to the public. The mayor presides at council meetings, serves as a spokesperson for the community, facilitates communication and understanding between elected and appointed officials, assists the council in setting goals and advocating policy decisions, and serves as a promoter and defender of the community. In addition, the mayor serves as a key representative in intergovernmental relations. The mayor, council, and manager constitute a policy-development and management team.

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10-26-2007-01

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10-25-2007-10

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10-25-2007-09

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10-25-2007-08

I see that the Challengers have come up with a "Plan" for the fire department.  It would have been nice if they did some research before coming up with the "Plan".  How do other communities the size of Iron Mountain provide fire services?  Not many, if any at all, have a ten man full time fire department.  Or is it that this "plan" simply came from the remaining firefighters themselves.  To hire even one more firefighter when ten is already too many in a city the size of Iron Mountain is foolish.  We would be taking huge step back, not forward.  A workable system is in place now if the firefighters would at all get on board and not fight it every step of the way.  I will not vote for anyone who believes that hiring another firefighter is a good idea.

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10-25-2007-07

Open Things Up for Everyone All the Time: Put Us Back on the Tube!  by Bill Toedter

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10-25-2007-06

On the vendors report we have a very mysteriously special agenda. Ann Henricksen ( the mother of Eden Caudell) Was issued a check for 600.00 for the center of regional excellence.

What the heck is that? I never seen where the council made a new committee like that one. Talk about special interest. Nothing like the mother of a council woman to get a check from the city for probably doing nothing.

Oh maybe it was compensation for handing out the incumbents letter door to door. Look at the next vendors report I am sure there will be another 600.00 check wrote again. I wonder how it can be a even amount of money. Lets hurry up and vote them out so we can have a honest council. Good luck challengers were rooting for you.

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10-25-2007-05

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10-25-2007-04

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10-25-2007-03

[Submitted to The Daily News 10|25|07.]

No response = no $, no vote
 
Editor:
 
Seems there are a million hot, angry, emotional reasons to vote for different city-council candidates this year.  But there are also cool, reasonable, and pragmatic ones.  For example:
 
I’m the chair and chief exec of IME Corporation.  This is a small multi-service tech company founded in 1979, as-is since 1990.  A privately held company, its stock is not publicly traded over the counter or on an exchange like the NYSE or NASDAQ.  Examples of similar types of companies with names more familiar to the public would be Blackstone (Chrysler) and S.C. Johnson (Glade, Raid, Drano, Windex, Ziploc, et al.)
 
Over the last few years we’ve rolled out an online directory service for communities, states, provinces, and countries, cumulatively giving us several hundred thousand web visitors per month and a slightly higher public profile than previously.  But most of what we do remains behind the scenes.  We create and manage networking packages (websites, email, specialty services, etc.) for businesses, governments and their agencies and departments, nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), institutions, and in some communities for families and individuals.
 
We also create, maintain, and participate in online exchanges and clearinghouses, usually established for humanitarian purposes.  Such a clearinghouse is where members post and store information, meet, communicate, and coordinate activities to serve a common cause.
 
For example, following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, a small city in Indonesia may have needed food, drinking water, medicine, clothing, and portable shelter for immediate disaster relief.  The Salvation Army may have had the necessary food and water.  Catholic Relief Services may have had the medicine.  CARE may have had the clothing and Oxfam the tents.  The Royal Australian Navy may have been the nearest and best equipped party to gather, transport, and deliver the emergency supplies.  It’s the clearinghouse, also acting as a notifier, where the city, the NGOs, and the Navy would have gathered to discover and exchange the necessary information, plan what was to be done, coordinate the effort, then deliver the aid.  Another example closer to home is our clearinghouse for the Gulf Coast following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and presently we’re finalizing one for the victims of the current southern California fires, should they require it.
 
Additionally we frequently provide free civic directories and a full range of computer, web, and internet services to worthwhile needy organizations, to schools, and to communities like the Dickinson County area and others in which we have employees, stockholders, or other interests.
 
We work with other, specialized businesses that we own wholly or partly, or with whom we contract or otherwise partner.  We have clients globally, but most are in the United States and countries in which English is the primary or widely used secondary language (e.g., the U.K. and Hong Kong, respectively).  Though we have individuals working in over 240 places worldwide, we have to headquarter where it’s technologically practicable, therefore our primary physical base of operation is in Chicago.  Small branches are in Dublin and Sydney.
 
By the middle of 2005 we were ready to change this.  With several financial and tech partners, we formed a business consortium principally to invest in the creation, growth, and development of a single, centralized headquarters in Iron Mountain.
 
The price was right, a fraction of that in any major urban area, especially for noncontiguous business campuses in separate areas of Iron Mountain’s DDA district.  Stretches along and near South Carpenter Avenue, downtown, and the north side particularly interested us.  The area’s infrastructure was adequate to get established, at which point we would improve, modernize, and add to it at our expense to suit our needs.  We had no need to request financial aid including tax breaks from the city.  The local demographics were not a problem.  The availability of local and regional partners was not a problem.  Labor was not a problem.  The attractive nature, comparatively high salaries and wages, and generous benefits of our industry would continue to attract the personnel we needed in every capacity, and there was an adequate labor pool from within the broader immediate region from which we could also draw.  To make a long story short, Iron Mountain looked like a great fit as a 21st-century tech town and topped our list.
 
Our plans were simple.
 
First, we wanted to establish and maintain, at our expense, a Wi-Fi umbrella -- i.e., wireless internet service -- over the entire city, like the wireless umbrella services of Philadelphia and Minneapolis, Corpus Christi and Spokane, as well as others.  At every point throughout the city, this would provide comprehensive free broadband internet service to each business, institution (e.g., churches and schools), and residence in the city that chose to use it.  The entire city would’ve been a single hot spot.  We planned to work closely with the local/regional telecoms, cable companies, and other internet providers.  No one in Iron Mountain, and eventually in an ever-expanding area, would have to pay to connect to the internet, saving those monthly fees, and they would have free email, net services, and support.  Everyone.  Even you, The Daily News.  No exceptions.  No strings attached.
 
Second, we wanted to provide a virtually limitless internet package to the city -- i.e., to the city government.  As much space and whatever features and support it needed.  Again, free and no strings attached.  The city could then choose to (1) have us operate and manage it, (2) hire a manager that worked directly for city hall, or (3) hire an entirely independent third party to manage its online package -- whatever it chose.  For example, it could have exactly the site it has today being managed by whomever manages it now, but its cyberspace, features, and connection would be free, saving the city those fees.
 
For the cynics, yes, we would have got something out if it.  We’d have got a brand new city-wide wireless internet connection for our use, too.  We’d be operating in a city with a state-of-the-art internet package and online presence.  And we’d be establishing good public relations and staying on good terms with the community.  We felt that free high-speed high-quality internet service for everyone in town and for the city government would raise the happiness quotient and go a long way toward proving our good faith toward the community.
 
Additionally, as a citizen, I was excited as heck.  I thought it would be indescribably cool that Iron Mountain would be a state-of-the-art tech town among the best and most advanced in the world -- that’s right: in the world -- illustrative of being truly progressive, not just another whiny, mediocre, and remote little chain-store town constantly behind the curve and always struggling to catch up and be competitive.  Instead, desirable businesses and residents from afar would be monumentally impressed and attracted.  Plainly, no one would be able to buy the priceless universal publicity and promotion that Iron Mountain would freely get for being ahead of the curve and getting it right.  I don’t mind admitting that I was absolutely tickled at the idea.
 
Third, we wanted to sit down with the city management, discuss our plans, learn what would be required of us, and learn what agencies, administrations, commissions, departments, committees, local businesses, individuals, etc. we should meet with to donate, handle the logistics, and set up the free internet services to the city, and how to go about planning and developing our purchase and subsequent development of property throughout Iron Mountain and our projections to invest initially at least a couple hundred million dollars of private capital and create 900 to 1,200 tech, tech-related, and tech-supportive jobs in the immediate area over approximately nine years (by 2014) -- the final number of jobs depending on whether or not we included up here The Human Relief Fund and our hardware and mobile servicing units.
 
Again, if local businesses -- building contractors, for example, maintenance and cleaning and other contracted services, equipment suppliers and other providers -- were able to provide what we needed, could meet our standards, had outstanding reputations, and priced their goods and services competitively, we were willing to forgo bidding and hire them directly in the spirit of strengthening a good and cooperative business community within a good and cooperative general community.
 
To present our tech donations and to set up a first meeting and get the ball rolling about the prospect of moving lock, stock, and barrel to Iron Mountain, we first formally approached the city manager via traditional USPS mail on September 29, 2005.  And again on November 7, 2005.  And again, with a simultaneous approach to the mayor, on December 6, 2005.
 
When we got no response following our initial approach, as well as between our November and December mailings, we followed up with a series of informal attempts to contact the city manager by email, telephone, and in person at City Hall.  None of these attempts was successful.
 
When no one at City Hall responded to mail and email and did not return calls, we sent full-package postal mailings to all of the administrative staff, each City Council member, and peripheral authorities (e.g., DDA chairwoman Sherri LaBrash), before and after the election of 2005.  Thoroughly bewildering us, not one city official -- elected, hired, or voluntary -- ever responded, even once, in any manner.
 
In over 56 years of big-city, rural, and small-city living, I had never experienced anything like this.  Nor had any other businessperson and politician I shared it with -- and, believe me, I was consulting people all over the place.  This was a real jawdropper, even among the initiated who thought they had seen it all.
 
Not incidentally, for confirmation of our contact, donations, proposals, and subsequent activity, please request from the city the appropriate formal correspondence via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  The most detailed information is best recapitulated in the separate 12-06-05 review list of everything being offered to Iron Mountain and the accompanying letters of December 6, 2005, to the city manager and mayor, as well as the followup and final correspondence to each city official on January 10, 2006.  Request those December and January documents specifically.
 
As 2005 ended, we continued to hear nothing.  At first, the only way we knew that city officials were aware of us were that non-administrative employees at the DPW, police department, fire department, and City Hall had become privy to the correspondence and were contacting us with questions.  Then, after a caller tipped an IME employee, we confirmed in a short series of calls to the front desk at City Hall -- one of which I personally made -- that the City Manager, John Marquart, had instructed those city employees answering the phones or otherwise interacting with the public to tell callers and other inquirers that our offers, proposals, and desire to meet city officials were a scam and should be ignored.
 
Spooked, our investment banking and other financial partners had had enough.  Money people hate unnecessary risk.  To them, the complete unresponsiveness from city officials -- as well as the backdoor accusation of a scam despite all of the evidence to the contrary, and despite the offered opportunities for the city to review and investigate our legitimacy and vet us thoroughly -- was not only unprofessional but, more frightening, irrational.  They felt the city’s bizarre and presumptuous behavior was unbusinesslike and irresponsible, unpredictable and unreliable.  In other words, too risky.  The big-money components of our group no longer wanted anything to do with Iron Mountain because of its government’s strange and inexplicable behavior regarding our offers.  Such companies may get mildly upset, but they rarely get angry and spiteful.  They get impatient, disapprove, and grow indifferent -- all of which quickly doom a prospective deal.
 
On January 10, 2006, via mail to the city management and the City Council, we formally and completely withdrew our donations, proposals, and request to meet with them.  We felt it was in our best interest not to be associated with Iron Mountain’s city government as it existed then.
 
We’ve been asked by some why we didn’t raise a stink.  Our answer: To what end?  Frankly, we weren’t interested in spiteful recriminations, finger-pointing, and bickering with city officials.  To us, that behavior served no practical purpose.  From a business point of view, we had alternatives, and we had materially committed next to nothing, so the episode was really no skin off our back financially.  As the old saying goes: “Nothin’ personal.”  As business people we were interested in moving on and getting back down to business -- with someone who was serious about doing business.
 
Which we did.  It’s too late for IME and Iron Mountain to marry over a corporate HQ, no matter who wins any future election -- we’re setting up shop elsewhere.  Sorry.  Nothin' personal.  We had to move on.  But what about the future?  What about the next IME?  What about the other desirable 21st-century businesses that try to make a home in Iron Mountain?  And how many other businesses that we don’t know about have suffered the same discourtesy we suffered?  Moreover, what about similar businesses that Iron Mountain should be actively pursuing but is ignoring?
 
Two years later I still live in Iron Mountain even if my business's HQ doesn’t.  What happened two years ago is personal to me as a citizen and resident, if not as a businessman.  Mainly because it affects the wealth, standard of living, and quality of life in my town.  But it’s also personal to me because of the larger principles it stands for during the 2007 campaign for open city-council seats.  And here’s where we get cool, reasonable, and pragmatic.
 
Incumbent candidates Councilman VanLaanen, Councilman Rigoni, Councilwoman Jacobs, and Mayor Tousignant were on the City Council when we were knocking on the door from September 2005 through January 2006 -- they've been in charge since January 2004, in fact.  They were also responsible for hiring, supervising, and supporting the city manager who’s been in office almost as long as they have and who cavalierly ignored and dismissed us.
 
Today, two years later, these council members, their city manager, and their campaign supporters claim to be progressive.  They claim to be innovative and imaginative.  They claim to be responsive.  They claim to be in-touch and forward-looking.  They claim to be professional and businesslike.  They claim to have the welfare of the entire city at heart.  They claim to be in favor of strongly pursuing new business and new investment for Iron Mountain.  They claim to be for new jobs, modern 21st-century jobs that will attract to town and hold the educated and monied middle classes in their 20s and 30s.  They claim to be in favor of doing whatever it takes to get those businesses, to get those jobs, to get that investment, to get that money.
 
Each of their claims is empty and false.
 
When they had the opportunity, why didn’t they do what was necessary?  Why didn’t Messrs. Tousignant, Rigoni, VanLaanen, and Ms. Jacobs step up and measure up to each of their campaign claims about themselves when the chance presented itself?
 
In 2003, I bought what they were pitching.  A principal reason our group of businesses approached them in 2005 was that I bought their pitch in 2003.  So much for credibility.  In 2007 I’m shopping elsewhere for candidates.
 
Until recently, of the candidates challenging the incumbents I knew only Bill Toedter of U.P. Security.  Bill’s a good man.  Toedter, Bruce Rosen, Dale Alessandrini, Dave Farragh, and Tina Peterson have at least been responsive.  They answer email and return calls.  They’re well acquainted with the issues.  They seem savvy, hopeful, and enthused about getting something constructive accomplished throughout the city and for the city.  When they talk they consistently sound practical and make sense.  They’ve shown up, paid attention, and done what it takes to run caring and communicative campaigns.
 
But most importantly to me, these five candidates haven’t given me a reason to disbelieve and distrust them.
 
On the other hand, incumbent candidates VanLaanen, Rigoni, Jacobs, and Tousignant have given me every reason to disbelieve and distrust them.
 
If I can’t believe the current council members about jobs, business, economic development, and all their related claims, why should I believe them about any other issue?
 
James M. Hogan
October 25, 2007
Iron Mountain

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10-25-2007-02

I just want to say one thing. If Iron Mountain ever goes to a volunteer fire department, I’m leaving! I understand that most U.P. areas only have volunteers. I’ve lived in some of those communities. In fact, I’ve had relatives die in a fire in one of those communities. I have lots of respect for those firefighters and how dedicated they are. But let’s face it; do we want that slower response time when it’s our home? Do we want to risk losing big businesses that want that added protection? Do you want to be in one of our local hospitals, with your door closed , waiting for the slower volunteer response? If you do, good for you. As for me, no thanks! I have a scanner and listen to the number of pages it takes sometimes before there is a response from the volunteers that then need to get from there homes or jobs (or wherever they happen to be) to get their equipment and a truck to respond with. I’d rather do without something else before sacrificing a full-time fire department.

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10-25-2007-01

Let me start by saying that I am not a landlord; but I have certainly been a tenant in many Iron Mountain apartments. Some of them good, some not so good. What I'm wondering is: Are the motels that rent weekly and monthly included in the new ordinance? They are rented just like apartments. Are the City-owned rentals included or exempt? I don't want to hear that they are exempt because they are HUD funded. There are many rentals in the city that are supplemented through HUD. If you exempt some, you must exempt them all.

Some years back I had one terrible landlord. I dealt with broken windows, leaks, and loose steps. No one wanted to touch this person because they have a 'name' around here. That person needed to be fined and made to do something (and was, when I got some free legal assistance). I'd hate to see the many good landlords I've had penalized because of the ones that just don't care. I've had landlords practically bend over backward to help me out and make sure my rentals were safe and had everything working.

I say apply the Maintenance code to ALL dwellings and make everyone safe. Don't single out landlords. There are plenty of home owners who put their own families at risk.

If people keep renting from the slum-lords, they will continue to be just that. If you don't like the condition of a rental, you have a choice to remain or get out! There's always help from a variety of agencies.

Sadly, as rentals are inspected, many landlords will be fined for damages being done by current tenants. I've seen very nice rentals reduced to trash by tenants who then flee. The landlord is stuck with repair costs and those tenants go elsewhere and do it again. Then they are the first to complain when the only landlords who will rent to them are the slum-lords.

I'm all for safe and adequate housing; but lets do it fairly so that we don't end up forcing out the landlords who really care. If you hurt the good landlords, you could also be hurting the good tenants too.

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10-24-2007-09

The character of a person is how they act under pressure.  What tactics will they use?  Will they bully, lie, backstab and coerce?  Will they present facts calmly and logically, stake out their positions openly and be able to defend them? Are they able to take the heat that will always be part of the election process in stride, or do they become strident, defensive and lashing?
 
Rank all the people running for the Iron Mountain City Council. I did.  It wasn't even a contest.
 
The voters ranked them in the Primary.  Did an excellent job, too. Nuff said. Nothing has changed since then.

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10-24-2007-08

We all know people who will never change their mind.  No matter what observable and documentable facts come before them, they are dismissed with a smart-alecky remark, a slur or a grunt.  They will always be with us.
Forget 'em.
 
We all know people who have a sense of self-importance  They want to impress you with their knowledge, their toys, their dress and their conversation, which inevitably  centers around them. Forget 'em.
 
We all know people who will lie incessantly, often at the expense of others, and demean people to serve their ends. Forget 'em.
 
We have seven people on the city council with many of the above attributes.  Four of them are up for re-election.  On Novemer 6, Forget 'em. 

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10-24-2007-07

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10-24-2007-06

Thank you Mike Carey for the letter to the voice of the people, accurate!!  How many full time fire departments are in the Upper Peninsula? I think ,but am not sure , three or four. Could someone find out?  How many Public Safety Departments in the Upper Peninsula?  Is everyone else in the UP wrong and we are right?  I don't think so.  Does the DPW still shovel the sidewalk for the firemen to walk into the fire hall because their  contract says they don't have to shovel the sidewalk? Are they running any businesses  out of the fire hall while they are on duty?  I think at one time they did. I believe we have a few very dedicated firemen,  I would like to see the fire department dissolved, go to Public Safety, hire back the four dedicated firemen and start cross  training all of the personnel for the police and fire department. Any candidate that wants to hire back one or more firemen will NOT get my vote.

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10-24-2007-05

Re 10-23-2007-01:

Our downstate friend Oskar offers some valuable and welcome governing advice should the challengers prevail. Many of the city's current travails are indeed attributable in whole or in part to bad hiring decisions, and any future Council must make personnel decisions much more carefully, taking into consideration the factors that Oskar mentions.

Oskar's campaign advice is equally sincere but, I believe, misguided. No challenger should drop out, for at least five reasons:

1) It would smack of desperation, or at least lack of confidence. Even if the challengers thought they were losing, they shouldn't advertise the sentiment.

2) It would show disrespect to the voters, in much the same way that the mayor's write-in campaign does. The voters decided in August whose names they wanted on the November ballot. It isn't good politics to tell them they were wrong--either by telling them to vote for a candidate they have already rejected, or by telling them to ignore a candidate they have already advanced.

3) It would deprive the challengers of what is arguably their greatest asset: their reputation for greater integrity and openness. An orchestrated dropout would look like the very sort of kabuki theatre that the incumbents have been practicing for four years. Voters might well react to a dropout by thinking, "Oh, great. These people aren't even elected yet, and already they're cutting back-room deals with each other. They're just more of the same. I'm staying home."

4) It would assume--wrongly, I believe--that most or all would-be votes for the dropout would go to the other challengers. In a small town, people have axes to grind with particular individuals that aren't always apparent. The challengers' tallies in the primary were not randomly distributed: Bruce Rosen received almost 100 votes more than any other candidate. He apparently has relatively few enemies. There may well be voters who support the challengers in general but won't vote for a particular one of them for a particular personal or business reason. Having five candidates for four positions lets people hold their personal grudges while keeping votes away from the incumbents.

5) The final reason that no challenger should drop out is one that no one wants to think about right now: 2009. The three incumbents facing reelection in 2009 have supported this city manager and this council's policies too. Moreover, any incumbents who are ousted this year are very likely to seek ward seats two years from now. If four challengers win and govern well, this year's fifth-place challenger will be far better positioned to take one of those ward seats two years from now if he or she finishes the race as opposed to dropping out. Yes, sadly, we almost certainly will have to go through at least one more contentious campaign. I hope the Webmaster--to whom we all owe an enormous debt of thanks--plans to stay on the job.

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10-24-2007-04

The Great Debate Continues:  Bill Toedter responds to Doug Rigoni  ...  About the tax-assessment debacle, the multiple standards of blight-ordinance enforcement, and a timely vs. untimely resolution of the ongoing fire-department/police-department problem.

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10-24-2007-03

Seeking a Model City All of Us Can Be Proud Of  by Dale Alessandrini

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10-24-2007-02

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10-24-2007-01

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10-23-2007-03

Letter to the Editor submitted 10-23-2007
Two years ago I wrote a letter to the editor because of the concern I had regarding the firing of 4 firefighters.  My questions were then answered by Mr. Marquardt in his own column "From the desk of the Manager". 
Two years ago I asked what MIOSHA thought of the under staffing/change in our fire department.  Mr. Marquardt repeatedly responded that "it was none of their business".  Well, two years and several thousand dollars later, I'm thinking it may just be "their business".  The responsibility of overseeing the completed training of our police officers was the manager's.  He is the supervisor.  The buck stops with him.
I am absolutely appalled at the recent letters to the editor concerning the cancelled council meeting and the fire department. 
I was at the cancelled meeting on October 15th, along with my daughter and 4 of her classmates from Civics class.  Although I agree with Mr. Chartier that the student government class should have a positive experience when they hold their meeting, I need to make it clear that the kids who attended were not traumatized by any yelling and screaming.  What they heard was citizens who were outraged at the fact that the meeting was unable to take place because of lack of attendance by our current council members. They handled it just fine.  Actually they handled it better than those who commented the day after and who were not even in attendance! Now that's what is called grandstanding and playing politics.  Easy for the Mayor to spout off with no one to challenge him on a radio program.   
I believe honest communication is key  with our families, friends, business associates and all levels of government, including our city council.  Lack of communication makes for upset residents, families and friends.  Lack of communication is what we have in Iron Mountain today.
Be informed.  Check out the following website for personal views and opinions, but most importantly for documentation of facts.  Find out for yourself.  Don't take my word for it.  All links to iron mountain truth (incumbents), iron mountain democracy (challengers), IM Fire Dept, City of Iron Mt, can all be found on ironmountainissues.org.

Thank you for your time.

Mrs. Cathy Menza (not to be confused with any past or present people who may bear the same name).
Iron Mountain

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10-23-2007-02

Important Qualities for a City Council Member by Bill Toedter

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10-23-2007-01

Again watching from far away.....

Some advice for the challengers:  One of you should drop out.  There are four seats available and with five of you running you are spreading your votes among five of you, thus decreasing the total votes for all of you.  This will only aid the incumbents.  Personally, I think the former city employee, who I presume is vested in the city's retirement system, is going to run into conflicts in that regard if he is elected.  Another strategy would be to look at the primary results and have the lowest challenger vote-getter drop out.  That would be Mr. Toedter.  In looking at the primary results it was very clear that voters preferred one block of candidates over another.  They are going to vote for the challengers over the incumbents.  Since only four of you can be elected, doesn't it make sense to have the fifth drop out so that his votes can be split amongst the remaining four?

But there you go.  For the good of everyone, one should drop out.

As for your inability to hire an assessor; its true that that position has been advertised on the Michigan Municipal League website for quite some time, along with a "Downtown Coordinator" whatever that is.  I'm a state employee who was a municipal employee for 11 years.  Municipal employees, particularly professionals who may be open to relocating, are a fairly small group, especially in the U.P.  I can tell you right now that the word is out on how toxic the atmosphere is with the City down there right now.  Competent professionals are probably going to be unwilling to come to work for the City of Iron Mountain for that reason.  You need to be very careful looking at the assessor resume's you do get, for just that reason.

I'll give you a case in point:  your DPW director agreed to come and work for the city for $50,000.  This immediately set off alarms in my head when I heard about it, because it isn't enough money for that profession (its about $10,000-12,000 too low.  I know this because this is my line of work and I always keep an eye on openings all over the U.P.).  I wouldn't have come back home to Iron Mountain for that salary, but someone did and then next thing you had a foolish directive to dump sewage at Millie Hill.  This is what comes of not doing homework.  You get what you pay for.  You challengers remember that when you're on the Council, or you'll wind up with another Rich Brook.

Ciao, and good luck!

Oskar

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10-22-2007-09

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10-22-2007-08

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10-22-2007-07

Awfully quiet downtown about Iron Mountain's ongoing reassessment debacle ...

$204,000 spent.  Reassessment unfinished and no completion in sight.  Unrealistic schedule.  Assessor fired/quit -- and gone with the money!  No leverage, fishy claims, unfounded assessment figures, fictitious contract, inability to hire a qualified assessor, bizarre bidding process, irregular procedures, and no one accepting responsibility.  "Refund" a possibility?  Who knows?  And "Silence Out of City Hall" by Dale Alessandrini.

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10-22-2007-06

Speak directly to, or correspond directly with, Candidates Toedter, Rosen, Peterson, Farragh, and Alessandrini.

In the traditional media and on the street, opponents are now regularly misrepresenting, mischaracterizing, and demonizing Iron Mountain city-council challenger-candidates Dale Alessandrini, Dave Farragh, Tina Peterson, Bruce Rosen, and Bill Toedter.  Please visit their site(s) of responsible and positive campaigning at IronMountainDemocracy.com to read what their positions are and, if you wish, to email or telephone them.  Their addresses and phone numbers are listed there.  Don't get it second-, third-, or fourth-hand -- or even further removed.  And certainly don't trust their opponents to represent them accurately. 

Learn exactly where the challengers stand on the issues -- directly from them -- and hold them directly accountable.

IronMountainDemocracy.com

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10-22-2007-05

I was mulling over the item here concerning John Marquart's undesirable job background and something else occurred to me about him.  I don't mean to exclude anyone from the conversation, but I direct this note primarily to the people who have had contact with City Manager John Marquart and have tried to do business with him.  Even to those who have actually done business with him, like me, over stuff about which he actually knew something.  Since he's been here, there's a truism that's emerged about him, evident time and time again, and hardly a week goes by without him exhibiting it, both in the office and out, both to the public and to those with whom he works:

If John Marquart is ignorant of something or cannot control it, he either blocks that something from others (like the council members or the public) or ignores it entirely (as if it doesn't exist).  Or both!

Ever notice that?  The only exception is if he's publicly trapped.  Then he simply starts manufacturing bull and earnestly spewing it all over the room, bluffing authoritatively as if he knows what he's talking about, as he's done regarding the Bolt decision by the Michigan Supreme Court, our local TIFA, the city's Code of Ordinances, relevant state and federal law, and countless other subjects that are inconveniences to him, affect us intimately, and about which he's never bothered to learn a thing.  Otherwise, it never varies.  Block or ignore.  Except for the epic bluff of malarkey now and again, I can't think of a single example, nor can anyone I ask.  This is an immutable pattern of his behavior, and not a particularly positive or healthy one for directing a city's business. 

I don't say this to be cruel to any individual, but we have a whole city's welfare to think about here and therefore I agree with yesterday's writer: I think Iron Mountain deserves better than John Marquart and can actually do a heck of a lot better than him.  If getting that done means putting a responsible, aware, and supervisory majority of new members on the City Council, then so be it.  Let's elect the new guys and get back down to business in this town and away from all the insane, unproductive, and harmful posturing and politicking of the last few years.

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10-22-2007-04

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10-22-2007-03

If you want to see someone is a desperation mode, look no further than our city manager.
 
Here is someone who knows that if he is fired, his future looks mighty grim.  Getting fired from three out of your last four jobs is not exactly what you want to emphasize on your resume.
 
He has nowhere near enough money to consider retiring.  He's in his mid-to-late fifties, not a good age to be job hunting these days, and a track record going back thirty years that is anything but impressive. 
 
What community would consider hiring such a drifter?  What community would be as foolish as Iron Mountain in not looking more carefully into his background? Very, very few would be the best guess. 
 
John Marquart has more riding on this election than anybody.  His desperation is evident by his  rash comments about attorney Roy Polich, phony press releases on a low-income housing project that will never get off the ground and, I'm sure, more to come in the next two weeks.
 
Stay tuned.  A desperate man is loose among us.

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10-22-2007-02

About those eastside apartments that aren't there ... by Dale Alessandrini

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10-22-2007-01

When incompetence, inexperience, and arrogance get together,  you end up with the current city council and a guy called John D. Marquart. 
 
True, he's a slickster.  But where was the slightest hint of "due diligence" in the hiring process.
 
You've got a guy who has caused controversy just about everywhere he served and has been fired in two of his last three jobs (and that information was available).  Why not dig a little deeper into his earlier jobs in the Chicago suburbs, namely Darien, Country Club Hills and Richton Park, IL.  Why did no one ask why he left the Chicago area?  Surely not by choice.  It was because he was a known quantity there and couldn't find a job anywhere in the area.
 
Same in the Pittsburgh suburbs.  Two of three canned him.  Only Edgewood, pop 3,200, did not fire him.  Edgewood is far less than one square mile in size, a nothing place.
 
Once this council hired him, they were forced to defend him - hell or high water - even if down deep they knew he was a compulsive liar.  That shows their colors.  Never, ever admit a mistake has been the hallmark of this city council.  The incompetence and arrogance of this mayor and the other three incumbents is legendary.  Throw in their inexperience and add in their limited brain capacity and you have accurately summarized the government of the City of Iron Mountain as it stands today.  
 
I got a big kick out of post # 10-20-2007-06 which lists over 30 examples of the absolute lies, screw-ups and clear violations of the law. 
 
God help us all if a single one of them gets re-elected.

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10-21-2007-04

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10-21-2007-03

A number of people have been talking with me about the city manager lately and now I'm curious too.  I look at the documentation at this site and then research all the stuff about John Marquart on the Web, and I marvel.  Why did the current city council hire as city manager a guy who over 30+ years is either fired or forced to leave job after job every 18-36 months?  I mean, there's no evidence of him being effective anywhere at anything.  Only being protested and canned.  I hope that we can elect a majority of four of the new, challenger candidates to the council and that they would not only fire the current city manager, who has done nothing but gash and gouge and lie to the city, but, more importantly, hire a city manager that has actually been successful at doing this job at one or more places in the past.  Let's get a winner in here who's not a blowhard all full of himself but who actually makes things work -- and has clear experience to prove it.  If that means electing four new council members, then so be it.  This Marquart guy, like his history, has been a disaster in Iron Mountain and, through his ripple effect, to the greater community as a whole.  Is there anything he's said or done that hasn't been contradicted by the law or the facts?  I'd like to see a good, experienced, successful city manager hired by Iron Mountain, and soon.

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10-21-2007-02

City government playing politics with pre-election announcement of dubious apartment complex by Dave Farragh.

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10-21-2007-01

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10-20-2007-06

The following is an incomplete list of people, agencies, and documents, all of whom are  lying because our city council and city manager ALWAYS tell the truth, AND YOU KNOW IT!!

Spokesmen for the Truth:

City Manager John D. Marquart

Mayor Kenneth Tousignant

Iron Mountain City Council

Evil people and organizations who are working secretly in a MASS conspiracy against the above:

 1. The City Fire department - too numerous to mention - reporting violations to the DEQ.

 2. Iron Mountain Code of Ordinances - for stating what the cable franchise fee can be used for

 3. The Iron Mountain City Charter - for stating that hiring must be done through civil service, for stating there are rules on council members for missing meetings without a vote of approval, for stating there are rules on how to legally abstain - oops, I meant to say too numerous to mention.

 4. The Iron Mountain Water Department – for stating there are non-functioning fire hydrants and chlorinating our “clean and wonderful water” just because it has coli-bacteria..

 5. Iron Mountain Civil Service Commission - for ruling a recent DPW hiring was improper.

 6. Administrative Law Judge Roy Roulhac – for his unfair practices decision against the city.

 7. The City Council challenger candidates – for their audacity to decide to run.

 8. The Iron Mountain City Clerk – for honestly reporting he did not get citations directly to his desk as required by law. 

 9. The City Chief Financial Officer - for writing in a budget letter that funds are being depleted at an alarming rate.

10. Landlords Association –for not succumbing to the rental ordinance as written.

11. The ISO - for its petty concerns on the fire protection rating of the City of Iron Mountain.

12. MIOSHA - for fines and citations for safety violations because they have nothing better to do

13. The US Postal Service - for reporting the day citations were delivered by certified mail

14. Michigan DEQ - for telling anyone they were conducting a criminal investigation

15. Michigan Office of the Attorney General - for not flatly stating that nothing in Iron Mountain is being investigated.

17. All past city council members - for the 127 years.  A long list of evil ones here.

18. All past TIFA Board members - for 21 years. A shorter list but equally evil.

19. Attorney Roy Polich – for being the landlords’ attorney and for his letter in the paper

20. Attorney Henry McRoberts - counsel for a sewage backup victim, for his letters in the paper

21. Anderson Tackman - for claiming in their independent audit that there is increased cost for current fire/police setup

22. Kingsford City Council - for changing the terms of their mutual aid agreement with Iron Mountain just because they got tired of answering calls due to insufficient manpower here.

23. The Breitung Township Board - for saying they backed out of regionalization talks with IM.

24. Center for Regional Excellence - for acknowledging that Breitung backed out.

25. Dickinson County Equalization Director - for saying the reassessments were badly flawed

26. Rich Brook - for saying he resigned

27. The Michigan Supreme Court for voting with Bolt and declaring user fees above and beyond normal maintenance are taxes.

28. Charter Amendment Petitioners – for saving taxpayers $200,000 a year.

29. Blight Ordinance Citation Recipients – 500 of them for not responding properly and meekly to Gestapo tactics.

30. Sewage back-up victim – for suggesting raw sewage shouldn’t be dumped in his house.

31. Water flood victim – for bemoaning the fact a basement full of water may be a problem.

32. The Retirees – for asking why their Health Fund was depleted out of $1,300,000.

33.  Water Users – for asking why the city council refused a $1,500,000 offer from TIFA to be applied to the water bond.

 ALL OF THESE INCREDIBLY EVIL PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS MUST BE STOPPED NOW.  OUR TOTALLY HONEST GOVERNMENT CANNOT OPERATE AT TOP EFFICIENCY WITH ALL THESE DISTRACTIONS.

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10-20-2007-05

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10-20-2007-04

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10-20-2007-03

The September Vendors Report is online.  September Report

Webmaster

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10-20-2007-02

 Remember when Bacco hit the gas main on US2 and all the police and fire teams responded?
 Well it is my understanding that the City sent a bill to Bacco and the issuance company called and wanted them to waive the fee for the fire department. Well guess what, it was never followed up on and the fee was never collect by the city.
 I can't imagine the city not wanting to get back some of its money, but than again look who sits on the council.

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10-20-2007-01

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10-19-2007-10

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10-19-2007-09

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10-19-2007-08

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10-19-2007-07

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10-19-2007-06

I am a visitor in Iron Mountain, staying with a very close friend.  I'm from Ohio where I keep a close eye on the politics of my home town.  We got into a discussion on what's going on here in Iron Mountain and the election coming up.
 
He seemed very tuned in, but I thought he might be exaggerating a little to justify his position.
 
He then showed me the three websites connected with local issues.  He and his wife had to do some running around so I had time to wander around all of them.  It was fascinating. 
 
This website ("issues", as he calls it) is an open forum give-and-take site, almost like a chat room.  It is free-wheeling.  Very interesting with some apparently very knowledgeable people posting. It also has lot of basic information city information on the Home Page buttons.
 
The democracy website, www.ironmountaindemocracy.com website is a unified website that all five of the challengers united to form.  I found this idea very unique and, as far as I know, unprecedented in local politics, especially when they know only four of five can possibly win.
 
They articulate their unified positions exceptionally well on the Home Page and have very well written biographies and blogs. They all seem to be very practical people, though I personally don't know any of them.
 
The truth website, www.ironmountaintruth.com has me puzzled.  I'm not sure what its purpose is except to attack the challengers personally and attribute statements to them that seem very far-fetched.  I didn't see anything on there from the incumbents, so I don't know if they have anything to do with this website.  If I were an incumbent, I certainly wouldn't want to be associated with it and I would say so publicly.  It can't possibly do them any good as it's presently structured. It comes pretty close to an outright hate site.
 
I discussed this again with my friend and his wife when they returned home.  He said you're articulating your ideas very well.  Why don't you post them on "issues."  He opened his e-mail account and said start typing.  I did and here it is for whatever its worth.
 
I'm only an outsider with no stake in the outcome, but now that my interest has perked up, I'll be looking forward to the election results.

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10-19-2007-05

To 10-18-2007-06:

Well then, say what you mean.  For crying out loud!  Half the problem with these damned sites is that you get all this fuzzy blah blah blah and no real communication.  I don't care what side of an issue you fall on.  Think first and then say what you mean, person!  You might save a lot of hard feelings and find we're all in agreement about many more issues than you think.

To 10-18-2007-08:

You're welcome.  You haven't met a lot of us who've been paying attention to you.  That's okay.  You met many of us as tallies on August 7 and I daresay you'll meet us again on November 6.  I've been following you even if you don't know me, but I don't blame you if you're also covering your tails with your acknowledgement alongside your expression of gratitude.  Politics.  I understand.  I involved myself in politics my whole life, and since moving here I find it entertaining and still eminently worthwhile even in my dotage and despite how distasteful it can be.  Such public service can and should be an important calling.  Mind you, I absolutely do not agree with every position you take, and I don't care to see the five of you walk in lockstep either, no more than that other, blurry-headed writer does.  But I hate inaccurate information and crummy communication, I'm fussy about this, and that other writer originally said "single issue," which was misleading and clearly untrue.  You're to be credited and congratulated for having all of your information well organized, available, easy to find, easy to understand, and responsibly, accountably signed.  Well done.  That's admirable.  I like that.  Also, you're infinitely better than that lying and scheming bunch of dumb bourgeois nouveau riche, arrogant shoulder-rubbers, and condescending know-it-alls in office now.  Small-town corporate welfare gang, milking the system.  It's not their money that bothers me, certainly, or even their preoccupation with hunting, gathering, and flaunting it.  It's that they confuse money with style, class, intelligence, and quality, and they smear their unattractive ignorance and unpleasant delusions across the entire city like a bad stain.  It's common, it's vulgar, it's gauche.  Their ridiculously elitist pretense would have them living in a 1925 issue of The New Yorker.  They have no idea.  It's that confounded superior attitude assumed by persons least entitled to it.  Egotistical snooty asses.  Shallow little people who haven't the remotest idea what money, power, standing, and influence are, do, and stand for.  That annoying little mayor with the irritating voice, God bless him, is specially clueless and asinine.  His hatchet man, the city manager, reminds me of the evil Grand Vizier who stands behind the decadent King and whispers abominable edicts in his ear while twirling the end of his mustache.  We have to end all of this nonsense and start fresh.  Moreover, I've read enough of your weblogs and other material from your individual sites and spoken enough to others around town to understand that the five of you are indeed individuals, even if you are helping each other out.  That's how the most successful teams function.  Good luck.  Win and then don't disappoint us in office.

Marion M. Anderson

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10-19-2007-04

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10-19-2007-03

" Our Neighborhoods" by Dale Alessandrini

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10-19-2007-02

Anonymity has its value, its legitimacies, its validities -- e.g., voting, crime tips, protection from harassment and vengeance, watchdog reporting and whistle-blowing, pointing to verification, substantiation, documentation, proof, evidence ...

But you have to be careful using anonymity.  Even if it's not intentionally used maliciously (and sometimes it certainly is), its use can have unintended consequences.  Innocent blowbacks and backfires.  I mention this so all of us can be more thoughtful, cautious, careful, and not so quick to jump the gun and point fingers as we head toward the local election in a couple weeks.  A couple examples.

There's a campaign afoot to protest and control noisy and thoughtless young motorhead thugs around town, and in one neighborhood and regarding one party in particular.  It springs up on this site now and again.  And the effort of the protestors is legitimate.  So is their anonymity -- they don't want these so-called teen hooligans and their adult guardian being vindictive and seeking revenge.  I know some of these protestors -- they have a right to be upset and nervous about speaking up -- I've also seen the motorheads!  But from the start the anonymous protestors probably should have let everyone else in the neighborhood in on what they were doing.  It now appears that the party being protested against has wrongly concluded who is complaining against them and is wrongly mounting its revenge against an innocent close neighbor who -- while agreeing with the protestors, as it turns out -- has had nothing to do with the recent complaints, protests, and suggestions, and only recently became aware of them!

Another example of anonymity going askew involves a recent controversial Web site here in town.  Recent being last summer.  Not long ago I learned that more than one person had accused city council candidate Dale Alessandrini of being responsible for that Web site.  Accusers, you are mistaken.  Period.  Dale Alessandrini had nothing to do with that site.  The party behind that site (and who hired a second party, a.k.a. Phil Dougie, to create, write, and publish that site) paid for an Internet package with a credit card, and probably was not knowledgeable, savvy, or imaginative enough to realize or understand that the Web hosting company he went through was local and that the people handling the account, of which I am one, recognized the party sponsoring that site.  That party has long since been persuaded to unload that Internet package, by the way -- and as far as I can tell from his behavior on one hand and his obliviousness on the other, he still doesn't understand who he's unloaded it to, doesn't grasp what he's doing, and doesn't realize that he's not truly, fully anonymous.  Both professional and humane ethics (and certainly a bunch of laws that I don't even know about), as well as company confidentiality and privilege policies, rightly prevent me from saying who the initial buyer is, but those same ethics compel me to assure all of you that, for what it's worth, and whether or not you believe it, neither Dale Alessandrini nor any of the other seven candidates on November 6's ballot was the purchaser of that controversial site, and there is absolutely no empirical evidence that these eight candidates had anything to do with that Web site.

See why you have to be careful with anonymity?  Awfully easy to jump to the wrong conclusions about who is who.  Some unscrupulous individuals will use and abuse anonymity for that reason exactly.  Beware of any similar, controversial sites that may just happen to pop up shortly before Election Day.  And, just generally, heads up.

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10-19-2007-01

Candidate Dave Farragh gets hot!

Takes exception with Mayor Tousignant hiding from citizens behind mayor's inaccurate claims and unfounded accusations in recent Daily News article.

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10-18-2007-08

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10-18-2007-07

I corrected this problem with the Agendas.

Webmaster

Student Agenda

Council Agenda

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10-18-2007-06

I think what was meant to be said was "single minded" agenda as in: five people all agreeing on everything.....I would guess never in 127 years has a group of challengers run as one unit hoping to oust what they consider a unified team and group all in agreement. I for one am looking for someone, ANYONE, willing to stand on their own. I don't want to trade one agreeing group for another agreeing group...How about a little balance of opinion????  And don't tell me they (challengers) all have their own ideas because you get to each of their sites through one host and they all use a lot of "WE" in their statements.  

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10-18-2007-05

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10-18-2007-04

"A lie every three column inches."

Candidate Bill Toedter disputes Mayor Ken Tousignant, attacking a series of eight (8) statements the mayor made to the Daily News.

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10-18-2007-03

 

I apologize to the incumbent council members if I left any other "liars" off the list.  It must be incredibly difficult to be the only tiny island of people in the entire area who are telling the truth about anything.

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10-18-2007-02

Dear 10-16-2007-18:

Excuse me.  "The challengers all have a single issue agenda!"  With all due respect, are you positive you meant to write that? 

From their website, Iron Mountain Democracy ...

  Issues:

    · Assessment Issue
    · Cable-TV Fees
    · Economic Development
    · Fire & Police Protection
    · Health Costs
    · Legal Issues
    · Rental Ordinance
    · Sewer Rates
    · Streets & Alleys
    · Water Rates

Also see the following, from the same website ...

Our Brochure:  Word · HTML 

These pages and files have been online at that location, regarding multiple issues, since July.  The candidates updated them soon if not immediately after the August 7th primary.

Also see the following, from the same location, for even more issues than those listed above ...

http://toedter.ironmountaindemocracy.com/   and   http://toedter.ironmountaindemocracy.com/blog.htm

http://rosen.ironmountaindemocracy.com/   and   http://rosen.ironmountaindemocracy.com/blog.htm

http://peterson.ironmountaindemocracy.com/   and   http://peterson.ironmountaindemocracy.com/blog.htm

http://farragh.ironmountaindemocracy.com/   and   http://farragh.ironmountaindemocracy.com/blog.htm

http://alessandrini.ironmountaindemocracy.com/   and   http://alessandrini.ironmountaindemocracy.com/blog.htm

And none of the above includes the phone calls and emails the candidates surely must field concerning every issue under the sun.

I don't know what you're talking about with this "single issue" business.  To my knowledge, there's no record over 127 years that a group of candidates other than the current challengers has ever collectively tackled a large series of different issues, and with such ambition and dedication, in the history of Iron Mountain.  Whatever the challengers are, they are not single-issue candidates.  As far as I'm concerned, that's a terrific recommendation for them.  If you want to fritter away the practical value of your vote on write-ins, please, exercise your right proudly.  But please don't try to mislead other voters about listed candidates, specially when published evidence to the contrary is open and public.

Marion M. Anderson

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10-18-2007-01

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10-17-2007-07

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10-17-2007-06

Let us not forget this past legal action also... $$$$$$
 
STATE OF MICHIGAN

EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

LABOR RELATIONS DIVISION

CITY OF IRON MOUNTAIN,

Respondent-Public Employer,

Case No. C04 K-301

-and-

IRON MOUNTAIN FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION,

LOCAL 554, IAFF/AFL-CIO,

Charging Party-Labor Organization.

/

APPEARANCES:

Nantz, Litowich, Smith & Girard, by John H. Gretzinger, Esq., for the Public Employer

Helveston & Helveston, P.C., by Ronald R. Helveston, Esq., and Heather Cummings, Esq., for the Labor Organization

DECISION AND ORDER

On February 9, 2006, Administrative Law Judge Roy L. Roulhac issued his Decision and Recommended Order

in the above-entitled matter, finding that Respondent has engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor practices,

and recommending that it cease and desist and take certain affirmative action as set forth in the attached Decision and

Recommended Order of the Administrative Law Judge.

The Decision and Recommended Order of the Administrative Law Judge was served on the interested parties in

accord with Section 16 of Act 336 of the Public Acts of 1947, as amended.

The parties have had an opportunity to review this Decision and Recommended Order for a period of at least 20

days from the date the decision was served on the parties, and no exceptions have been filed by any of the parties to this

proceeding.

ORDER

Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act, the Commission adopts as its order the order recommended by the

Administrative Law Judge.

MICHIGAN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

___________________________________________

Nora Lynch, Commission Chairman

___________________________________________

Nino E. Green, Commission Member

___________________________________________

Eugene Lumberg, Commission Member

Dated: ____________
 
www.cis.state.mi.us/ham/ber/pdf/2006/c04k301.pdf

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10-17-2007-05

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10-17-2007-04

Playing it fast and easy with the City Treasury?

Hey!  How come the city's paying $340.28 to Superior Aviation for Moose-Jackson's Eden Caudell to fly down to Lansing in 2005?  She didn't even take office till 2006.  I have business meetings with the governor, a state senator, the attorney general, and some of their staff members next week.  Like our city officials and apparently select nonofficials, I'm a very important person, don't you know.  Think I can get John Marquart and City Hall to provide a flight down there and back?  I can promise the City Council and him that city business will come up, so we can all happily justify it.  Well, maybe not happily.

Also, what's this deal Bill Toedter's talking about regarding Iron Mountain picking up the tab to fly members of our local broadcast media to Lansing?  Does that have legs?  How does the city manager and his gang justify that?  Or don't they even bother?  And how on earth has it benefitted the city?

Marquart!  Good lord!  What the hell were you eating out there in San Diego?  Gold?  I travel all over the world and frequently eat in its most expensive cities.  Even in expensive restaurants, it's difficult to spend $50 per meal on only yourself unless you're being either deliberately extravagant or gluttonous.  And to be either deliberately extravagant or gluttonous at our expense?  John, John, John.  Tsk, tsk.  What was your bar tab like?  A tip: try some of the unknown or lesser known places off the beaten path, with great local reps.  The food's far, far better and much less expensive.  Some of the house wines you run across are extraordinary.  And you can brag to everyone about this great find you made the last time you were in Boston.  And how much money you saved Iron Mountain.

I'd sure like to hear some official explanations.  Some legitimate ones, actually.  Anyone else curious?

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10-17-2007-03

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10-17-2007-02

Last weekend I got a call from a lawyer friend in Lansing.  I hadn't talked to him for months.
 
All I said was "hello".  He didn't bother to re-introduce himself.  He immediately asked a question.
 
"What the hell is going on up there."  I could tell from the way he asked the question he wasn't asking about the weather or about my family.
 
I asked him what he meant.  He told me Iron Mountain's mayor and city manager are the laughing stock of Lansing. Bureaucrats of various departments, the Michigan Municipal League and others consider them a joke. They are pushy, cocky, and know-it-alls in a league way over their heads.
 
He does not practice in the area of municipal law.  So I asked him how he could possibly have any inkling about Iron Mountain or its affairs.  He laughed and called me a country bumpkin.  "You know how lawyers are always talking to other lawyers", he said.  "We have lunch together, discuss politics all the time - remember this is Lansing."
 
I gave him a summary of the situation here, the primary election, the upcoming general election, the general public feeling toward the mayor and city manager, etc.
 
He said he believes something is going to be breaking one of these days concerning Iron Mountain.
 
He wasn't sure what it would be.  He said, "I was having lunch with some of the guys from the AG's office (Attorney-General) and Iron Mountain came up.  They said thery weren't directly involved and wouldn't go any further. I think they knew more than they were willing to tell me."
 
Our conversation ended and that's all I know.  I did notice, however, in last night's paper that some mention was made about an criminal investigation in the public discussion that took place after the council meeting was cancelled because a quorum was not present.
 
Based on my conversation with my lawyer friend and then reading the paper last night about a possible criminal investigation, it sure looks like there's some smoke out there somewhere.  Maybe we're in for a fireworks display. 
 
If we are, I hope it takes place before the election.

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10-17-2007-01

After reading a letter to the editor last night about a public forum scheduled for October 23, I checked with some of the challengers to see what it was all about.
 
None of them had been notified about a public forum by any sponsor of such an event. 
 
How can the writer of the letter know about it and and not the people who are supposed to participate?  What kind of an ambush is this supposed to be? 
 
A little more snooping around and I pick up an interesting tidbit.  Scott Naueretz, the Mayor's domestic partner is behind it, and somehow got a reputable local service club involved.
 
The mayor came in ninth in a nine person race in the primary.  Now he is trying a write-in campaign.  HE IS ABSOLUTELY DESPERATE FOR A PUBLIC PLATFORM.  He will spew lie after lie after lie, as he has done for four years.  He has no qualms whatsoever in doing so.
 
Challengers, don't fall for this.  If a reputable service club is behind it, they  should have informed all participants long ago.  If they are behind it and haven't informed all participants, they themselves become suspect.  I doubt if most of the club members knew about.
 
1  - What are the ground rules?

2  - Who sets them?

3  - How are the questions framed and who frames them?

4 -Who will moderate and how much does the moderator know about city affairs?

5  -Is everyone on base with the proposed moderator?

6  - Why should the mayor even be allowed to participate.  His name will not be on the ballot.
 
Once again.  Challengers, don't fall for this.  A letter to the editor writer knows about it and you don't?  Who notified her and put her up to writing the letter while not notifying you such an event will happen? 
 
This ambush attempt is so clear in its motives that no reputable service club should not be a willing or unwitting co-conspirator. 

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10-16-2007-20

So.  In the end are Ken Tousignant, John Marquart, and other city officials just plain liars?  If so, why?

Interesting reading.  City-council candidate Tina Peterson refutes unsubstantiated radio and TV "untruths" by Mayor Ken Tousignant and City Manager John Marquart -- and also calls out Bob Becotte and Jeff VanLaanen -- by offering simple evidence and public documentation to all who ask for it, proof of criminal investigation, and additional disclosures and information about city-management and city-council misinformation, repeated abandonment of legal procedures, and other disreputable activity.  She also seeks and questions the reasons for their false claims and outright misstatements in direct and irrefutable contradiction to the documented proof of city, state, and other official records; as well as their pathological secretiveness and equivocation, their contemptible behavior toward not only any political opposition but to the general public, and such bizarre and unprincipled activities as John Marquart deliberately and officially misleading the state agency MIOSHA with a false address.  Peterson's Report

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10-16-2007-19

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10-16-2007-18

WHAT A MESS!!!!!  Lets cool things down before the election. The incumbents have not done a very good job. The challengers all have a single issue agenda!  How about a write in campaign?  Lets contact people with experience that could serve even two years to get our city back on stable ground without prejudice and without personal gain. If they so chose they could stay on for another two years or make it clear from the Git Go that after two years they will  resign and then we would have an election of three by wards and 1 2 3 or 4 at large. How about Ted Corombos , Bob Jayne,  and one or two others that could serve with honesty and integrity.

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10-16-2007-17

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10-16-2007-16

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10-16-2007-15

 

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10-16-2007-14

I went to the Iron Mountain council meeting last night with one question to ask. Four of the council people failed to show up so the meeting was cancelled.  I don't believe this has ever happened before and is a sad testimony to the quality, character and commitment of our elected officials. ( To hot in the kitchen???)
 
Most of the tax payers who attended the meeting stayed and listened to issues and concerns of the citizens who took the time and energy to ferret out the facts and truth about what is really going on in this city. VanLaanen and Burke stayed and listened to what meant to be the open forum for the council meeting. (burke walked out half way through)
 
After the meeting was over several people were outside the back door of the city hall (the alley adjacent to the parking lot) when someone asked VanLaanen why the council would not answer questions on issues at meetings. He stated that the council meetings were business meetings. When asked  where the issues should be addressed he said " Right here." (in the alley).  I was shocked. I have never heard anything so stupid or ignorant in my life. Of course on the other hand if there are things that need to be kept quiet that is a perfect solution. No reporters, no TV and no radio. It's easier to blow off the issues and concerns when they are presented in alleys.
 
I believe  this is an appropriate time to remind this council that they work for us, the tax payers and as an employer we have the right and duty to question all city business. (inside the building).
 
In closing I need to inform the council that I resent being called names. I am not a rebel rouser or a trouble maker, I am  however a concerned citizen with many reasons to be concerned, thanks to you.  By the way, the old geezer, is right out in the open with all he says and does. I don't think he even likes shadows.

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10-16-2007-13

Candidate Rosen replies to mayor and city manager's claims.

For the record, city-council candidate Bruce J. Rosen responds directly in writing to Mayor Ken Tousignant and City Manager John Marquart's statements broadcasted on WJNR 101.5 FM on Tuesday, October 16, 2007.  Rosen's Response

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10-16-2007-12

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10-16-2007-11

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10-16-2007-10

Clarification required:  Did local media personnel, not employed by the city, receive city-paid flights between Lansing and Iron Mountain?

Info Requested About Fourteen (14) City-paid Flights to Lansing and Five (5) Recommendations Regarding City Travel Expenses by Bill Toedter

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10-16-2007-09

Come on.  Tell me that 10-16-2007-07 isn't being a bit disingenuous.  After all, just yesterday this very site published the following.

10-15-2007-04

Straight from the horse's mouth.

Where do city-council candidates Toedter, Rosen, Peterson, Farragh, and Alessandrini stand collectively on leading issues?  To find out, visit their official website and click on each of the leading issues newly listed.  For individual stands on other issues, or to question them via email, visit their separate websites by clicking on their names or photos.

Iron Mountain Democracy

It sat atop the page for 24 hours.  And it seems to me there's been a similar announcement on this site at least once a week since midsummer.

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10-16-2007-08

Positive answers.  Written down, signed, and published online.

Attention 10-16-2007-07:

Your answers, individually and collectively, are right here, at the candidates' official site.  Most have been here since mid-July.  The blogs update regularly, so some of them are as recent as today.  If the answers still aren't specific enough for you, mail or email the challenger-candidates.  Their addresses are at this site and have been, with invitations to contact them, for three months.  Additionally, the challengers continue to invite and encourage all voters in Iron Mountain to visit their site and learn what the candidates will attempt to do for the entire city if you elect them on November 6.  It's all there, above their signatures, and they fully expect you to hold them accountable for their promises and, if elected, their governing.

Iron Mountain Democracy

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10-16-2007-07

Attention challengers:
 
Your negativity is not helping your cause.  Tell us, a voter, what you will do to improve things.

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10-16-2007-06

Public safety.
 
Has everyone read 10-9-2007-08?  It cuts right to the chase and makes as much sense as anything on this website. Probably the closest to how everyone else in town feels too.  Seems like everything else spoken and written about police and firefighting services in Iron Mountain, while no doubt having some value, is either clutter or distraction.  I would absolutely vote for a new majority on the council from among the challenger candidates if I knew they would take a fresh approach that would include the vision and sensibility that 10-9-2007-08 evokes.  I'm inclined to vote against the incumbent candidates simply because they shortsightedly created this dangerous and expensive mess to begin with.  I want excellent fire service, I want excellent police service, I want them simultaneously, I don't want one service hurting the other, I want them as inexpensively as possible, I want everything legal, I want the best ratings for service and for insurance premiums and insurance availability, and whatever all that costs, so be it.  I know one thing: it's both cheaper and safer -- and saner! -- than what we're facing now.  In 60 years, I don't think I've seen anything as ineptly created and irresponsibly sustained by an Iron Mountain city government as the chaotic, senseless, and harmful mess that's been gathering the last four years and today possesses this city as surely as any demon direct from the most torturous depths of Hell.

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10-16-2007-05

As for the lack of quorum at the Monday night Iron Mountain City Council:
 
For the record, Council Member Robin Tchokreff was seen a Super One before 8:00 PM Monday night.
 
Council Member Eden Caudell was at work at Moose-Jackson at 7:00 AM Tuesday morning.
 
It'll be fun watching Marquart and Tousignant try to spin their way out of this one.
 
Go challengers!!!!

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10-16-2007-04

The Water Issue:  Making Iron Mountain's Water Pleasant and Safe

"End the Recent Years of Neglect and Fix the Problem Now:  How to Provide Iron Mountain with Clean, Healthy, Unchlorinated Water" by Dave Farragh

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10-16-2007-03

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10-16-2007-02

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10-16-2007-01

Can you believe it?  Iron Mountain's always slippery city council tried to pull off their slipperiest maneuver yet. No quorum to open the meeting. 
 
Does anyone ever remember that ever happening before.  No one in the audience could, including Bill Calcari who joined the city as an employee close to 50 years ago.
 
They didn't want to face the barrage of criticism that was starring them in the face and would get in the paper the next day.  So they tried to be clever and orchestrated a no quorum  situation. 
 
IT DIDN'T FOOL ANYBODY.  NOT ONE PERSON IN THE AUDIENCE BOUGHT IT.  NOBODY READING ABOUT IT OR HEARING ABOUT IT ON THE RADIO WILL EITHER.
 
This gutless bunch of liars, connivers and misfits couldn't face the HEAT so near the election, so they WALKED OUT OF THE KITCHEN!! 
 
Keep spending tons of money on those ads you self proclaimed elitists who have never accomplished anything on your own in your lives.  It's money down the drain.  You may have money, but you sure as hell didn't earn it on your own. Mommy, daddy, granddaddy and spouses did and handed it to you or gave you a job in a family business that would run as well or better if you weren't there.
 
Voters will not forget you three weeks from now.  Won't forget to toss you out, that is!! 
 
Continued progress my __s.

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10-15-2007-10

With all due respect to the incumbent city-council candidates and their supporters, I've never once heard an Iron Mountain landlord (or one of the candidates challenging the incumbents) claim that they were against a rental ordinance.  And when I see anything officially on the record, it's just the opposite.  The landlords -- at least those of the city's Landlord Association -- are quite amenable to a rental ordinance.

I have heard them say and seen them write that they were against a bad and unjust rental ordinance.  I have heard them argue for a practical and fair rental ordinance.  They've even proposed alternatives to the city's current mishmash of vagueness and ambiguity.  In fact, they almost worked out a rental ordinance with the city's Planning Commission early last year before the city manager scotched it and uncompromisingly forced his own poorly written and plainly unjust one of dubious legality down everyone's throat -- yes, the present poor one basically and bluntly written to generate money for city hall, inequitably excluding city rental properties, but tied up in court and costing all parties a sizeable fortune.

Seems to me that but for the counterproductive controlling nature and self-defeating greed of John Marquart and an acquiescent City Council, Iron Mountain could have had a win-win-win-etc. situation early in 2006, implementing a legally solid, workable, and fair rental ordinance; avoiding a lot of animosity, wasted time, and wasted effort; and saving what will be at least tens of thousands of city and private dollars in legal expenses.

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10-15-2007-09

Goodness!  If you haven't read 10-12-2007-10, then I highly recommend that you do.  Exceptional post.  More than the sum of its parts.  I think I know the woman who wrote it.  Great job, XYZ!!!  Or whoever!  Great message.

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10-15-2007-08

Monday evening, in the dumbest move imaginable, the City Council, knowing there would be a full house of citizens with real concerns, decided secretly and obviously that a quorum should not be present. This was the last meeting before the election that would get media coverage.  By time the final one, the day before the election, got into the Daily News most people would already have voted. The Mayor and Council Members Jeff Van Laanen and Dan Burke were the only ones present. The Mayor mumbled something about a lack of quorum and rapped the gavel once and was ready to walk out.
 
They thought everybody in the audience would get up and leave and the media would have nothing to say except that no meeting was held because of a lack of a quorum. It didn't quite work out that way.
 
Former Mayor Ted Corombos immediately got up.  He told Mayor Tousignant that once, many years before he was involved in city affairs, a similar incident took place and then Mayor Phil Rahoi sent the Chief of Police out and found enough to make a quorum under threat of arrest. 
 
He then took the floor and announced he had things to say, he way going to say them to the audience and he would not be limited to the usual five minute Public Comment period because this was not an official meeting. Mayor Tousignant and the City Manager John Marquart walked out immediately without a word. Mr. Corombos made a presentation covering many illegal and bad decisions this council had made. Dan Burke walked out about ten minutes later. City Clerk Jordan Stanchina and Jeff Van Laanen stayed to the end.  Van Laanen said he wouldn't answer any questions.  The City Clerk did answer questions that were asked of him.
 
Speaker after speaker got up.  Besides Mr. Corombos, Mr. Neidstadt (sp?) of the planning board spoke of his experiences on that board, Joe LaFave of Lakeside Builders discussed his frustration with the City Manager in his pursuit to develop land for 148 homes that would eventually bring in $1,000,000 a year in city taxes,  Tina Peterson reported on her DEQ long hours of work regarding the sewage dumped by the bat cave and the Chapin pit and the pending criminal investigation connected with it, Dave Farragh talked about the chlorination problem and the deficiency notice the city had received way back in December 2006 and ignored until this week.  Dale Alessandrini reported on research he had done on the Liaison Officer issue and how the council twisted it in an attempt to gain political points.
 
Linda Lobeck of The Daily News and Aaron Harper of Frog Country Radio stayed for the entire meeting.  It was such a rare event that it falls into the once in a lifetime category.

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10-15-2007-07

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10-15-2007-06

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10-15-2007-05

 When I was first told about this site, I never thought I'd read much of it. I never would have imagined that I'd ever contribute to it. Now, I find myself sending something in for the second time.

 After reading the ads in Monday's paper, I cannot believe that the current council members are so unqualified for their positions. I really thought they were intelligent people who were just being controlled by this city manager. First, I read Sally's ad. What tidy streets and clean neighborhoods? What safe sidewalks? Some of the more junky homes are never targeted. And why? Because they know or are related to the right people (like council-members)? I haven't seen any sidewalk repairs anywhere near my home. The only new sidewalks are just off of the highway.

 Then, on the next page I saw Doug Rigoni's ad. I just had to chuckle. I was just a little shocked to see such a childish ad. Hasn't he ever heard the old expression, "If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen"? If you can't take personal attacks, stay out of politics. I can't speak for anyone else, but I want mature people, with backbone, running my city; not someone who whines when he's challenged. No wonder these council-members are so quick to go along with everything this manager proposes. They obviously don't have the constitution to face conflict.

 I guess I have to be grateful for the campaign ads. I see these people in a much different light now.

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10-15-2007-04

Straight from the horse's mouth.

Where do city-council candidates Toedter, Rosen, Peterson, Farragh, and Alessandrini stand collectively on leading issues?  To find out, visit their official website and click on each of the leading issues newly listed.  For individual stands on other issues, or to question them via email, visit their separate websites by clicking on their names or photos.

Iron Mountain Democracy

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10-15-2007-03

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10-15-2007-02

"Solutions, Hope, and the Future - Part Two" by Tina Peterson

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10-15-2007-01

Shannon Rosenthal posted a number of links on rental ordinances.  I am an Iron Mountain voter and not a landlord.  Bored with TV after the Packer game, I wandered around her links for the better part of an hour, maybe slightly more.  Quite interesting.
 
Battle Creek, as she pointed out, is introducing a rental ordinance.  At a recent meeting, there were many comments by many people.  Some of them quite enlightening. It looks like that city council will be modifying the ordinance based on public comment.
 
Ishpeming passed their ordinance in June 2007 with an Oct 1 deadline for landlords to register.  It's too early to see how that one will work out.
 
Marquette has had one for a while.  Landlords there have the option of appealing their citations to the Zoning Board of Appeals. 
 
Adrian's fee schedule is $25.00 for the first unit and $15.00 for the rest, much lower than the fees proposed for Iron Mountain.  They also have an extensive checklist which they give to the landlords before inspections.
 
Allendale Township has a $15.00 fee initially and they then inspect every two years thereafter. If the property is in compliance, the subsequent fees are waived.
 
It would appear than some governmental units are providing a good service at a nominal price.  The good landlords have nothing to fear.  The better ordinances give the landlord a grace period to fix any violations and don't penalize them if they comply within the grace period.  They all have some kind of registration procedure for both landlords and tenants, which is understandable. This is somewhat time-consuming initially, but not bad.  After the initial registration, it takes very little time to maintain. 
 
In my admittedly brief review, I saw a wide range of practices.  None of them are as expensive as the one proposed by Iron Mountain, which I understand has an $80 up front fee, $50.00 for registration and $30 for the first inspection for each unit.  There is a big difference between a good rental ordinance that is motivated primarily for safety as compared to one that has both high initial fees and large fines thereafter. The latter type smacks of a money grab - a money-making operation, if you will. 
 
I remember reading somewhere in the past that the Iron Mountain Planning Board and the landlords were working cooperatively and making progress toward a rental ordinance that both sides could live with. Then, City Manager John Marquart intervened, halted the process, and a rental ordinance of his choosing was introduced and passed by the city council. That was a truly unfortunate.  Had the process been allowed to continue, there is every reason to believe Iron Mountain could have had a good rental ordinance.  It did not happen, and the result has been a lawsuit that has cost both the city and the landlords considerable legal fees. 
 
A good rental ordinance is possible.  Iron Mountain, I hope, will eventually get one that provides for the safety of tenants, weeds out and penalizes the minority of bad landlords, and has nominal administrative cost for the good landlords who, no doubt, would be happy to comply with such an ordinance. 
 
It is quite unlikely that the current city council and city manager would warm up to such a prospect because they passed the present unwieldy ordinance and are forced to defend it.
 
It may take a change of leadership to resolve this issue.  If it does, so be it.

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10-14-2007-03

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10-14-2007-02

In response to Mrs. Rosenthal's post:
 
I too would like to be an "informed" voter.  Not swayed by others angry opinions and personal attacks. I have enough of my own frustrated feelings about this sad, sad town. 
 
So, I opened one of the links that you kindly submitted in regard to Ishpeming's ordinance.  They have included governmental rentals also.  Iron Mt. does not.  What's up with that?
 
Effective June 6, 2007, all individuals, companies, corporations, governmental or private agencies must register all buildings containing residential rental dwelling units within the corporate limits of the City of Ishpeming.

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10-14-2007-01

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10-13-2007-02

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10-13-2007-01

Post # 10-12-2007-10 on Friday said it all - the one titled "When is a meeting isn't a  meeting"
 
At the bottom, the poster asks why men of this caliber don't run for public office and govern us.
 
Let me suggest some reasons.  First, he would not find himself on a council of his choosing, but on one which was elected by the voters from a small number of choices.  Those other people, in many cases, ran to promote certain narrow issues and agendas. He would be lucky if one or two could or would even begin to try to grasp the big picture, both short and long term.
 
He would find himself dealing with big egos and small minds. If, as is likely, they formed a coalition to push their respective agendas, he be out of the loop.  No amount of logic, insight or persuasion would make a dent.
 
In his other life experiences, he could easily avoid dealing with such people.  We have all avoided people.  In the setting he now found himself, he could not avoid them.  How long would a man of the caliber described in that wonderful post endure?  Would he go the extra mile and try to get good people elected some years hence and put up with his frustrations in the interim?
 
A creative, multi-faceted individual with many life accomplishments and a wide range of interests in many fields can easily fill his day.  A rational and possible outcome, once he quickly sized up the people he would be dealing with, could well be to resign.  Then he may be thought of as a quitter, but by that time he wouldn't care.
 
Can you picture a man of the caliber described in that post sitting on the Iron Mountain City Council and dealing with the people sitting there now?  It would have been among the least satisfying of his life experiences.

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10-12-2007-15

Since when is repaving a portion of pavement where other work has been done considered a "paving project" and worthy of publication in the paper? I was just re-reading a Daily News article from August 31^st, entitled " IM plans street work". I drove down those streets in the past few days and saw sections of pavement replaced where other work was recently done. The article made it sound like there was going to be some serious paving done on these streets. Fairbanks and Grant street are nothing more than a half of a block or less.

I'm getting fed up with this council, manager, and our local newspaper handing us lines of B.S., as if we are too stupid to actually see what really happens. And don't even tell me about the Brown Street project that is nothing more than a project to help out Blomquist's development.

I'm tired of these things being called "Progress". I'm tired of hearing about downtown revitalization to bring in outsiders. Spend our tax dollars on us first. Make my life worth living here before you try to bring in other people. Newcomers won't be any happier with the general conditions in town than we are. No one will want to move here if they see how the average tax-payers needs are ignored. I'm tired of driving home on pot-holed streets while you pretty-up the downtown. Why would I even want to invite my relatives or friend to come here?

Many of us are taking are serious look at these council members that we trusted when we originally elected them. My life is not better in the past four years. My frustration level has risen, my car has suffered from dodging and hitting pot-holes, and my pocketbook has been hit from several directions. Evidently us 'older folks' aren't progressive enough to matter.  But, don't forget, it has also taken some older folks to build this town and keep it going; and we do still vote too.

I don't want to just be proud of our downtown. I want to be proud of our whole town, as I once was. For many years I have trusted our city officials to be honest and fair and trusted our local newspaper to present honest facts. Those attributes no longer fit. I'm becoming ashamed to admit I live in Iron Mountain; and am wondering why I spend good money on the Daily News.

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10-12-2007-14

One of the best, probably the very best, post ever written on this site appeared earlier today, Oct 12, 2007
 
Of course, I'm referring to post # 10-12-2007-10 entitled:
 
When a meeting isn't a meeting. And when one is.
 
It deserves to be enshrined permanently on this site on the home page with its own button under an appropriate title - perhaps Ethics, or Public Service Ethics. 
 
                                      Webmaster, please consider it.
 
Maybe you can even place a button on the Public Forum page for it so nobody will miss it.
 
I also believe it deserves the widest possible distribution, including well beyond this site.  I will do my best to move it along. I encourage all readers on this site to do the same. 
 
To the writer of that post, a sincere thank you!!

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10-12-2007-13

Review of current City Council's travel-expenditure information gathered to date.

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10-12-2007-12

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10-12-2007-11

Senior Citizen Letter

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10-12-2007-10

When a meeting isn't a meeting.  And when one is.
 
As a kid, our parents and aunts and uncles and teachers and religious leaders always taught us how substance is far more important than appearance.  It was a good and important lesson.  It's true.  I teach it too.  You know the truth of it intellectually, but that knowledge doesn't usually stick in your heart or your gut.  We always seem to suppress or forget the lesson till we see a rare example of it.  I recently met a man who embodied it.
 
Recently, a regional chapter of an organization I belong to had one of its routine dinner meetings and guest speakers.  The guest was, to my surprise, a globally successful but, to most of us, virtually anonymous and invisible tech entrepreneur, semi-retired, who has a residence and small, nominal branch of his family of businesses in, of all places, Iron Mountain.  He's been here for decades.  I'd heard of him, but didn't know him personally.  From what I gathered and have since been able to research, despite an eye-openingly vast and varied background of learning and experience, the primary thrust of his work is communications and networking.  Or it's these things that make his many other extensive activities in charities, arts, human rights, and disaster relief possible.  Ha!  You never know who's right under your nose and what they're doing!
 
His prepared speech about the history and today's pervasiveness of the Internet was short and relevant, informative and interesting enough.  But it was when we got into the Q&A session that a brief and pointed presentation he made really rocked me.  Rocked us.  Because it was something so jarringly matter-of-fact and true and all of us have just complacently (and disturbingly) been failing to see it.  We were discussing the importance of communication in civic involvement.  Poor attendance at municipal council and board meetings as well as at school board meetings came up.  One woman asked if he attended these regularly where he lived.  This is where it got riveting.  I started shorthanding as fast and as accurately as I could on my BlackBerry.  I'll have to paraphrase most of what he said and trust that I don't misrepresent him.
 
He said not anymore, not regularly.  At least not currently.  To him, a meeting by definition is an occasion at which two or more parties gather to communicate about one or more topics.  Then he proceeded to explain how municipalities and school districts (he included as examples from our immediate area the City of Iron Mountain and School District of Breitung Township) have engineered what they now call meetings to meet the minimum legal and public-relations requirements, but to exclude genuine communication with the public.  That way they don't have to bother with any exchange of information they feel is unnecessary, and they don't have to bother with those people outside the currently official power circle who wish to exchange information with them.  Including open public communication clutters their agenda and threatens movement on their immediate interests.
 
Engineering these so-called meetings, he pointed out, is like sterilizing a healthy young couple of newlyweds -- the parties can still get together, but they're not going to produce anything new and vital.
 
Why is this elimination of communication among parties important? he challenged us.
 
Well, if from nine-to-five daily you have an unresponsive, uncommunicative management staff with whom you and no one else from inside or outside the municipality or school district can deal with, then the municipality or school district becomes incestuous, inbred and self-serving, unhealthy and dysfunctional.  At council and board meetings, it's impossible for anyone to perform the nuts 'n' bolts of business that is supposed to be performed with and by the management staff and committees during daily work hours.  But it's being ignored by the management and committees during daily work hours!
 
Ignore the public's nuts 'n' bolts during the work day.  Impossible to accomplish those nuts 'n' bolts in a so-called public meeting at night ... That's right: as a result of this setup, any valid public business that a city council and its management or a school board and its administration choose to ignore will not receive attention and will not get done.  They've deliberately engineered it to be that way.  And there's no good reason -- that is, no healthy and productive reason -- for it to be that way.  Not in a democratic society.  If they want secrecy, they can adjourn to Executive Session or hold other appropriate and legal meetings among themselves at other times and places to handle confidential matters.  A public meeting, however, should in fact be a public meeting.  The public and its representatives should be able to converse.  To communicate.  Directly.  Question and answer.
 
Important as this problem is, he continued, it's minor compared to the greater direct and practical damage that is being done to the general citizenry of a city or school district -- and therefore the entire welfare of the city or school district -- by these engineered meetings or, rather, by gatherings "sterilized" of give 'n' take, robbed of open communication.
 
If you can't communicate, you can't learn.
 
If you can't learn, you can't make an informed decision.
 
If you can't make an informed decision, you lack the power to choose wisely, to choose in your best interest.
 
If you lack the power to choose in your best interest, those holding the power can and will choose to deceive, manipulate, and exploit you in an effort to serve their interests.

So no, except on rare occasions for specific reasons of learning this, that, or another particular item about something, or to study the phenomenon, he doesn't currently attend these gatherings that those running them call meetings.  Spending his time at them is fruitless.  He explained to us that he can spend his time more profitably and democratically at the local political level by finding, supporting, and promoting council and board candidates who, instead of shunning and victimizing their fellow citizens, will re-open communication and subsequently be both open with the citizens and representative of them.
 
Then he turned the tables on us and asked how we felt about it.  Amazingly, after awkward minutes of stuttering and stumbling about, not one of us (106 in all) disagreed.  (A first!  A miracle!)  At least not openly.  It seems we all felt much the same as he did, but weren't aware of it and had never articulated it.  This gentleman had distilled our feelings and given words to them.  And afterwards it dawned on us that tonight we, at least, had truly had a meeting, as our chair recognized and thanked him for.  Just that realization was kind of cool.  He is the only speaker I remember us ever having to whom we gave a loud and long standing ovation.  And if I've represented him accurately, you can see why.
 
Moreover, it was fascinating to listen to this man and watch him walk through the intelligence of his convictions with a quiet and persuasive passion.  With an unassuming and attractive matter-of-factness.  No bull, no sophistry.  No arrogance, no condescension.  No false charm, no showy and distasteful and repellent salesmanship.  Just perfect sense, right out there in the open for everyone to reach out and share.  All substance and the ability to display and express it.
 
Now what I really want to know is why the guys like this aren't running for office and governing us.  At all levels!

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10-12-2007-09

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10-12-2007-08

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10-12-2007-07

 

You have got to be joking. Really. The real timeline goes something like this. Doug Rigoni put a political campaign ad in the newspaper that referenced fire fatalities, and with nothing but innuendo, blames the landlords.

 

A citizen responds to the ad with a letter to the editor explaining how he takes offense that a councilman would use tragedy as a political tool.

 

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10-11-2007-06

From Tina Peterson
 

Wednesday, October 10th   2007

Solutions, Hope, and the Future

Part II

Before taking steps forward, sometimes you have to clarify the past:

The Fire and Police Department issues have become a "hot potato" in this City.  By definition, I suppose hot potato means that nobody would want to touch it because it will hurt you.  Becoming this way is not due to the Challengers bringing forward documents that exposed the MIOSHA citations... or the documents showing the local government's ignoring of the ISO's repeated requests to enter the City for an evaluation.  Blaming the Challengers for exposing the manager's and council's wrongdoings would be like "killing the messenger",  but if you are desperate to shift blame and responsibility off of yourself it could be a convenient "out."  Just like blaming the Chiefs...or even the departments themselves. 

But those documents were not addressed to the Chiefs or the employees.  Those phone calls were not placed to the Chiefs or the employees.  That correspondence was read, heard, and then filed by our local government and there are no excuses. 

Any current council member can do their own homework, know the facts, and has had ample opportunity to follow up...and follow through, on every situation that has come before them.  I would have thought it was their responsibility to do so.  They have reacted to information in every conceivable way; except to face it head on and responsibly straighten it out for the public.

Today, I looked back on articles that I had saved from the Daily News since April.  I was especially drawn to the quotes from the council members and City Manager.  Should they be held accountable for their continual misleading public statements?  There are headlines that contain mistruths!  When did this become the "norm" for our city?  When did it become acceptable to feed lies to the citizens on every single issue?  When did hiding documents, dodging responsibilities, and publicly twisting the facts become behavior that a council rewarded with a 9% bonus?

Time and again, every council member...including those who are not up for re-election..has had the opportunity to speak out and do the right thing.  But whether by silence or by pointing fingers at whoever is most convenient to try and blame; not a single one has pointed a finger back at themselves and said that they should have taken a closer look.  They have especially not admitted to knowledge that they had.

They have all said many times before that the City Manager does exactly what they tell him to do.  In a personal conversation with one particular council person, he was adamant about that fact. So which is it?  Are his actions because of your orders...or are you so unaware of his actions?

Look, the only "good" things that people hide are Christmas presents.  The only legitimate reason to lie is when someone asks you if they look fat in those pants.  All other situations really deserve the truth.

As far as Police and Fire:

I have been doing my best, asking questions of both Departments to put together an idea of what they have endured these last 3.5 years and what they see for the future. 

Both the Police and Fire Departments have had to make extraordinary sacrifices to accommodate to a "plan" that was thrust upon them.  In my opinion, they were handed a sketchy outline with no tools, rules, and a deadline of "yesterday."   Above all else, both Departments are nothing but dedicated to their jobs and to protecting the citizens of this City. 

This includes both Chiefs, who have decidedly suffered greatly.  It was their hides, so to speak, if they couldn't make the impossible become reality.  Now add in perpetual scheduling conflicts in order to keep on at least a minimum staffing of what is required to keep this town safe:  Our City population more than doubles during the day due to workers and shoppers. Toss in overtime hours for all, that would stress-fracture any normal family.  Sprinkle on a City Manager who freezes training, dodges responsibility, instigates hard feelings and yet offers no solutions.  Stir in Council's lack of implementation, lack of presentation, lack of planning, and lack of flexibility.

 

Would anyone want to be an ingredient in this recipe?

 

This is only my opinion, from the outside looking in.  I cannot begin to fathom what it has been to live this scenario.  But I'll be dammed if I'll allow the council or the Manager try to blame any part of the Police or Fire Department for the citations.

 

The two Departments will have many ideas of what works best for them individually to give this City what it needs in the most cost-effective way.  We have a proposal that satisfies budget and public concerns.  It will be presented to both Departments and the Public.  After feedback, talks, and planning I think it is going to be the ultimate solution, but it will be up to all involved; including the input of the public, before it would be implemented.

Sincerely,

Tina Peterson

Candidate for City Council

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10-11-2007-05

While I was at Breitung Township Hall I heard that Mr. Rigona called 1 week after the 425 agreement was signed and ask the question. If I put my 40 acres that I have behind Bacco in my kids name will I have to pay Iron Mountain taxes. This person told him that he must do it before the 24th of October. What a shame when a council member that voted for the act 425 does this.  Double standards Da I think so.

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10-11-2007-04

From

Checks and balances

Published: Thursday, October 11, 2007

“Young people with no life experience, people that probably have never lived in ball and tube wiring, with fuses instead of breaker panels, without outlets every six feet and smoke detectors in most rooms.”

Kurt Rosentha 

I don’t know him but I do know it is KNOB & TUBE. Ask a competent journey electrician to compare fuses to breakers. You might be surprised to hear which he feels is safer. Ask also if knob and tube is safe another surprise in store. And code calls for an outlet every twelve feet the six foot rule is for cords on lamps and other appliances i.e. television, stereo, DVD player and so on. The concept is no need for an extension cord. If you are going to point out facts please check to see if they are fact or fiction first. And always consider the source.

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10-11-2007-03

Response to 10-10-2007-22:

 

Mr. Rosenthal did reply to me at my personal email address.

Due to his personal opinions added into his answers, it was not appropriate to post publicly.  I can confidently say that his opinions do represent only his personal views.

Technically, I believe that the Police and Fire Departments are not allowed to make public statements representing their whole Departments.

 

I have been doing my best, asking questions of both Departments to put together an idea of what they have endured these last 3.5 years and what they see for the future. 

Both the Police and Fire Departments have had to make extraordinary sacrifices to accommodate to a "plan" that was thrust upon them.  In my opinion, they were handed a sketchy outline with no tools, rules, and a deadline of "yesterday."   Above all else, both Departments are nothing but dedicated to their jobs and to protecting the citizens of this City. 

This includes both Chiefs, who have decidedly suffered greatly.  It was their hides, so to speak, if they couldn't make the impossible become reality.  Now add in perpetual scheduling conflicts in order to keep on at least a minimum of what is required to keep this town safe.  Toss in overtime hours for all that would stress-fracture any normal family.  Sprinkle on a City Manager who freezes training, dodges responsiblilty, instigates hard feelings and yet offers no solutions.  Stir in Council's lack of implementation, lack of presentation, lack of planning, and lack of flexibility.

 

Would anyone want to be an ingredient in this recipe?

 

This is only my opinion, from the outside looking in.  I cannot begin to fathom what it has been to live this scenario.  But I'll be dammed if I'll allow the council or the Manager try to blame any part of the Police or Fire Department for the citations.

 

Sincerely,

Tina Peterson

Candidate for City Council

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10-11-2007-02

10/11/07

I find it necessary to respond to Doug Rigoni’s ad, in The Daily News, regarding Sewer Backup Issues.

First of all, I would like to state that Mr. Rigoni needs to make sure his facts are accurate before publicizing in The Daily News.

I take offense at his statement that we, the challengers, made the sewer backup incident a political issue. That is absolutely not true. We, the challengers, have too much integrity to use another human being’s misfortune for political gain. In fact, it is Mr. Rigoni, himself, who made this a political issue with his ads in the newspaper.

That being said, I now want to tell you my views, on this situation, as a citizen of Iron Mountain. I attended many of the council meetings in which Mr. Giguere pleaded, with the City Council, for financial relief for damages incurred from the sewer backup in his home. This went on for months before he sought legal counsel. The City Council remained unresponsive to him. It was obvious, to me, from hearing the information presented, as well as, doing some investigation, that the City of Iron Mountain was responsible for this sewer back-up problem. The city employees were working in his area with pressurized water at the same time these back-up problems occurred. It is my opinion, that if the city was not responsible for the sewer backup, the council would never have made a settlement.

Mr. Giguere was unable to live in his house, for months, due to the extensive damage which occurred. He presented repair estimates to the council for review. All his pleadings fell on deaf ears, with the council remaining unresponsive. Mr. Giguere finally had no recourse but to seek legal counsel to obtain some relief. I could sympathize with him, as I have been in situations of making requests to the City Council also. It is like hitting a brick wall. After a while, you become so frustrated and hopeless that you find it necessary to seek legal counsel for assistance. MIOSHA has evidently hit the same brick wall. The City Council has remained unresponsive to the citations, of this monitoring entity, and have not completed the corrective action required, which has resulted in the fines continuing to escalate.

The settlement Mr. Giguere received will complete less that one-half of the repairs needed. Don’t forget, the costs for legal representation had to come out of his settlement from the city. My question is why did this situation have to escalate to the point of Mr. Giguere finding it necessary to obtain legal representation. As a citizen, of Iron Mountain, I feel that he should have been heard immediately and treated fairly.

This City Council should be ashamed of what they put this man through. If I were them, I would have difficulty sleeping at night. I sure would not be boasting about the savings to the taxpayers. The poor treatment Mr. Giguere received, in my opinion, was not the right thing to do. If Mr. Rigoni was so concerned with saving the taxpayers money, why did he allow this situation to escalate to the point of requiring legal intervention. Don’t forget, the taxpayers had to pay fees, to the City Attorney, for legally representing the city in this matter.

If Mr. Rigoni is genuinely concerned with saving the taxpayers money, why did he not do his part to insure that the MIOSHA citations, related to fire issues, were taken care of expediently before they escalated to $23,000.00.

Thanks for allowing me to set the record straight,

Bill Toedter, Candidate for City Council

"Sewer Backup & Setting the Record Straight" by Bill Toedter

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10-11-2007-01

Continued Progress?  Not quite.  If the incumbents were to get re-elected, we can count on:
 
Continued chlorination
Continued litigation
Continued illegal water and sewer user fees
Continued Cable TV fees
Continued administration fees -1% levy on city taxes for the privilege of paying them
Continued self-interest projects
Continued harassment of developers with frustrating requirements
Continued fines from MIOSHA
Continued danger of much higher fire insurance rates
Continued lying by an incompetent and arrogant city manager
Continued disregard for the interests of the average taxpayer
Continued writing of vague ordinances with draconian penalties 
Continued stonewalling and withholding of information by the city manager
Continued disregard of fire hydrants that don't work - 30 or so at last count
Continued disregard for rapidly deteriorating city finances
Continued deterioration of our streets and alleys
Continued efforts to build pavilions and bandstands
 
This is a short list - feel free to add to it.  Continued progress, ya sure.

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10-10-2007-24

All right!  A campaign party!

This is terrific!  I'm referring to posting 10-10-2007-20 and the Sol Blu incumbents' party on 10/17.  I can not wait!  I'll be there with bells on, my ogling specs, and my most impish grin!  Church will have to miss me next Wednesday.  My faith will have to lift a different tool that night.  I have been hoping beyond hope, simply dying for the incumbents to announce one of these gigs -- and I'm a supporter of the challengers!  For 10 bucks though I hope those hors d’œuvre are decent, not the usual tasteless and stingy campaign junk.  I hope all the challengers can make it, if for no other reason than just to sit quietly and absorb everything that's said by their fellow candidates, perhaps respond appropriately if necessary at a later time, another place.  I'm looking forward to some great entertainment.  I'm positive it'll be worth every bit of 10 dollars to hear what these people have to say.  Unless ... wait!  Does everyone have to get an invitation, one of these postcards?  Oh no!  Maybe the challengers aren't being invited.  I hope that's not the case.  That hardly seems right.  Shoot!  Fret, moan, worry ...

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10-10-2007-23

Here’s something that has not come up before. It’s a quality of life issue. A progress issue, even, but going the wrong way. I seem to remember that there were public bathrooms at Goulette Park a while back. Now they are gone. No, I’m not blaming it on the current council, because I think they were gone before their terms of office even started. But it is a quality of life thing. Ever go on a picnic at a park anywhere else, and not have a bathroom available when nature calls? Who ever heard of such a thing! What are you supposed to do? The brush there is a little thin for privacy, and pine needles just don’t cut it.

 

Why did the bathrooms disappear? Can’t we get them back? I think that’s a pretty straightforward and simple request. I know this is not an earth-shattering issue, but, don’t the little things count, too?

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10-10-2007-22

About Tina Peterson's post #10-9-2007-06 - honest questions to Mr. Rosenthal - and his "response" in post #10-10-2007-11

 

Wow! What an about-face! I wonder what happened? I was so looking forward to seeing answers to Tina Peterson’s very well-thought questions, and now it looks like we’ll get nothing and like it.

 

I didn’t see anything to be afraid of in those questions, Mr. Rosenthal. What gives?

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10-10-2007-21

Since the topic of liquor licenses has come up, I’m still wondering if it is legal for a local government entity to obtain a liquor license as Iron Mountain has done. I find it hard to believe that our tax dollars can be used for such a purpose and that we should be subjected to the liability that holding a license entails.

 

 

AND, does this mean that because the City of Iron Mountain purchased a liquor license for various festivals, that they are in violation to post any political advertising anywhere in the City? Would this include the City owned right of ways along the City streets? Would this only apply during the time the license is valid? And how long were these licenses valid? I just have so many questions about the legality of our City obtaining a license to sell liquor.

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10-10-2007-20

I received a postcard in the mail today.  It states:

"Come meet the Candidates!
Doug Rigoni~~Sally Jacobs~~Jeff VanLaanan
********Write in Ken Tousignant*************

When:  Wednesday, October 17th
Where:  Sol Blu Lounge
Time:  7:00pm-9:00 pm

7pm Social Hour~7:30 Candidates Speak~8pm Questions & Answers

Complimentary Hors d'uevres         Cash Bar           $10 Donation/person

If you are unable to attend...but wish to Continue the Progress!
Your donation of support can be sent to Committee For Continued Progress 511 6th Street  Iron Mountain, MI 49801"


I will not be going!  I have never been in Sol Blu and I never plan on going there!!!!
I also will not contribute to these candidates.  I found it interesting that there is a $10 donation.
I am not trying to sell this event, but I think that people should know about it.

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10-10-2007-19

Right from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, but I think most signs are on the clear vision state owned road right-of-ways.

Can licensees post political advertising?   Q. Can licensees post political advertising? A. No, with exceptions per Administrative Rule 436.1335: R 436.1335  Political advertising.   Rule 35. (1) A licensee shall not display advertising  that  advocates  the election of a person or political  party  on  the  inside  or  outside  of  a licensed premises, except as follows:   (a) An on-premises licensed establishment that is the site of a  convention of delegates of a political party  may  have  political  advertising  on  the premises during the convention.   (b) An on-premises licensed establishment or location for which  a  special license has been issued may have political advertising on the premises during the time of a fund-raising event for a  candidate  or  established  political party.   (2) Advertising related to ballot questions  is  not  considered  political advertising that is prohibited by this rule.   (3) Nominating, recall, initiative, and referendum petitions and  petitions on other ballot questions are allowed on the licensed premises.   (4) The term "political party" is defined in Section 11(4) of Act  No.  388 of the Public Acts of 1976, as amended, being  §169.211(4)  of  the  Michigan Compiled Laws.   (5) The term "ballot question" is defined in Section 2(1) of Act No. 388 of the Public Acts of 1976,  as  amended,  being  §169.202(1)  of  the  Michigan Compiled Laws.   History:  1954 ACS 84, Eff. Oct. 3, 1975; 1979 AC; 2000 MR 3, Eff. Mar. 20, 2000.

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10-10-2007-18

? for 10-9-2007-11

I believe it is a violation for an establishment with a state liquor license to display political signs. I would suggest someone look into this.

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10-10-2007-17

My wife Cathy and I attended the welcome home picnic on Sunday to honor the Troops of the 46^th M.P. Co. It was wonderful to see our community come together for these special men and women.

This would never have been possible without the hard work and dedication of these organizers, sponsors and those who donated for this special event.

Many heartfelt thanks go to: The Elks Lodge 700, Iron Mountain police Officers Association, VFW 3674, West Randville Sportsman’s Club, American Legion Post 50, American Legion Auxiliary Unit 50, Sons Of American Legion Squad 50, VFW Patriot Guard Riders, Mi. State Police Local Post 86, Michigan Laborers Training, Dairy Queen, and all the free will donations from the community and businesses. This picnic was a huge success with 600lbs of chicken, 100lbs of brats, and 200 hotdogs cooked for all who attended.

I am told that they are forming a committee to have a Freedom Day picnic every 4^th of July,  after the parade. There will be numerous activities including, Fire Department water fights, and there will be more children’s activities planned.

Enclosing we would like to welcome home our Troops and thank them and all Veterans for all their sacrifices they have made for our country. You are forever in our hearts and prayers.

.

Sincerely

Dale and Cathy Alessandrini

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10-10-2007-16

I just read Bill Toedter's response to statements made by Doug Rigoni in a recent political ad.  Read the response here .  I remember reading about this in the paper last year and wondering about it then.  I thought maybe I misunderstood.  How can the City Council get away with this, exempting the city and its rental properties from the rental guidelines that the City Council itself created?  That's a blatant double standard!  Did they think no one would find out or care?  And doesn't it seem that the city is swatting flies with a sledge hammer over this issue?  I'm not a landlord, and I never thought I'd sympathize with landlords, but it seems as clear as the Pinocchio nose on the city manager's face that the city council and its management team is publicly mischaracterizing, victimizing, and exploiting all of the landlords for the misdeeds of a few.  That doesn't sit well with me.  It's not right.  It's the landlords this time, but who's it going to be the next time?  And after that?  Etc.

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10-10-2007-15

Responding to 10-9-2007-04:

As you suggest, there may be some attempt at a grand strategy and adroit tactics to indirectly and quietly push non-controve